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posted by janrinok on Friday December 12 2014, @12:38PM   Printer-friendly
from the opening-Pandora's-box dept.

Lily Hay Newman reports at Slate that Sony is counter-hacking to keep its leaked files from spreading across torrent sites. According to Recode, Sony is using hundreds of computers in Asia to execute a denial of service attack on sites where its pilfered data is available, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. Sony used a similar approach in the early 2000s working with an anti-piracy firm called MediaDefender, when illegal file sharing exploded. The firm populated file-sharing networks with decoy files labelled with the names of such popular movies as “Spider-Man,” to entice users to spend hours downloading an empty file. "Using counter-attacks to contain leaks and deal with malicious hackers has been gaining legitimacy," writes Newman. "Some cyber-security experts even feel that the Second Amendment can be interpreted as applying to 'cyber arms'.”

[Ed's Comment: As I understand it, the Second Amendment only applies in the United States or in its territories overseas — it doesn't give Americans the right to bear arms anywhere else in the world.]

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 12 2014, @04:01PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 12 2014, @04:01PM (#125491)

    > there might be legal consequences.

    Sure there might be, it would probably be tortious interference. But you can't have a contract for something that is illegal so not applicable here and still not denial of service anyway.