Background

In January 2011, Sony Computer Entertainment filed a lawsuit against American hacker George Hotz (handle: GeoHot, best known for "jailbreaking" iPhone) for exposing the root key to a PlayStation 3 machine, which allowed users to develop and play unofficial, homemade games. Then in late February 2011, another PS3 veteran hacker Egorenkov (a.k.a Graf_Chokolo) was raided by the German police and subsequently sued by Sony for publishing the findings of his research on PS3's security loopholes.

Infuriated by Sony's legal actions against the two hackers, a contingent within Anonymous networks began attacking Sony-branded websites on April 2nd, 2011.

Notable Developments

• December 29th, 2010: George Hotz and the rest of hacker collective fail0verflow announce they have retrieved the root key of Sony's PlayStation 3 console at the 29th Chaos Communications Conference.

• January 3rd, 2011: George Hotz publishes his findings on his website geohot.com.

• January 11th, 2011: Sony Computer Entertainment America files a lawsuit against George Hotz and other members of fail0verflow for contributing to the release of PlayStation 3's root key.