Anonymous denies PSN breach involvement, Sony subpoenaed by NY AG

As the PlayStation Network outage enters its 15th day, the alleged culprits behind the accompanying data breach are protesting their innocence. In a press release obtained by the Guardian newspaper, the hacker collective known as Anonymous denied claims by Sony that it was behind the recent intrusion into Sony Online Entertainment servers. It also said it had nothing to do with the PSN attack itself, as Sony implied in a letter sent to Congress yesterday.

"Public support is not gained by stealing credit card info and personal identities, we are trying to fight criminal activities by corporations and governments, not steal credit cards," Anonymous' statement said. "If a legitimate and honest investigation into the credit card [data theft] is conducted, Anonymous will not be found liable."

In Sony's letter sent to Congress, the company said that of the 77 million PSN accounts that had personal information stolen from them, some 12.3 million contained credit card info. Of those credit card-enabled accounts, some 5.6 million were in the US, and the total included both active and expired credit card information. To date, most major credit card companies have not found any fraudulent charges related to the PSN intrusion.

However, as Anonymous' own press release reconfirms, it is not a monolithic organization. "While we are a distributed and decentralized group, our 'leadership' does not condone credit card theft," reads the statement. That leaves open the possibility that rogue elements of the group, which officially attacked the PSN in early April, could still be behind the PSN outage.

Meanwhile, it looks like another government agency wants answers from Sony. According to a Bloomberg report, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has subpoenaed the company to provide information similar to what it gave the US Congressional Subcommittee yesterday. Citing sources close to the matter, the news service says NY AG wants to know exactly how secure Sony told its customers its network was prior to the attack.

In response, Sony Computer Entertainment America senior director of corporate communications and social media Patrick Seybold told the news service, "We will review and respond to this request and will continue to work with law enforcement authorities as they investigate the criminal attack on our networks." The company is already cooperating with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security to investigate the attack.