Just in case you really don't know, the various branches of Sony have demonstrated technological contempt for [their] customers for years. I'll omit their insistence on promoting their own products over other standards and general push for increased DRM, such as Minidisc/ATRAC, Blu-ray, etc. and focus on their actual attacks.
It started with the CD root kit fiasco, in which music CDs distributed by Sony infected Windows PCs with software designed to prevent the ripping of music CDs to the computer, which also contained exploitable holes used by malware to infect computers.
Sony then removed the Other OS (e.g. Linux) feature from the new version of its PS3 consoles. This wasn't too egregious, but next they retroactively removed Other OS from older consoles that originally supported it. That upset a lot of people.
Along came GeoHot, a reverse engineer determined to get Other OS back, and no doubt other less-outspoken hackers. So he and the others did, and along with it recovered Sony's private key used to sign PS3 software, allowing Linux to access all the hardware of the PS3, as well as running other homebrew software.
Less-scrupulous individuals, not including GeoHot himself, used the aforementioned work to run pirated software on the PS3. This upset Sony.
The straw that broke the camel's back, though, was Sony suing GeoHot into oblivion (I personally suspect they also astroturfed gaming sites to get GeoHot's hack associated with cheaters at Call of Duty, which it was not). This is the final event that triggered the misguided but potent onslaught of attacks against any and all Sony properties.
>I personally suspect they also astroturfed gaming sites to get GeoHot's hack associated with cheaters at Call of Duty, which it was not
I don't know about that. Remember, the vast majority of gamers only know hackers as one of two things: people who take over websites, and people who cheat in video games. GeoHot being a "PS3 hacker" would likely naturally have led these people to assume the latter, and the combination of general ignorance of the issue and an emotionally charged reaction to cheaters likely enabled that rumour to spread virally. I certainly don't think astroturfing was necessary to spread that rumour, and barring any evidence showing Sony's complicity in doing so I'm happy to apply Occam's Razor and assume it spread naturally.
Never presume malice where stupidity will suffice.
I say misguided because it's highly unlikely the attacks will have the desired outcome. I heard the most recent hack mentioned on the local NPR broadcast of BBC radio, and all they said was that Sony was attacked again. I'm not aware of any mainstream media saying why.
The only effect seems to be people portraying hackers negatively in general, and at best, questioning why Sony was so vulnerable. The root motivation I described above seems to get no mention.
It started with the CD root kit fiasco, in which music CDs distributed by Sony infected Windows PCs with software designed to prevent the ripping of music CDs to the computer, which also contained exploitable holes used by malware to infect computers.
Sony then removed the Other OS (e.g. Linux) feature from the new version of its PS3 consoles. This wasn't too egregious, but next they retroactively removed Other OS from older consoles that originally supported it. That upset a lot of people.
Along came GeoHot, a reverse engineer determined to get Other OS back, and no doubt other less-outspoken hackers. So he and the others did, and along with it recovered Sony's private key used to sign PS3 software, allowing Linux to access all the hardware of the PS3, as well as running other homebrew software.
Less-scrupulous individuals, not including GeoHot himself, used the aforementioned work to run pirated software on the PS3. This upset Sony.
The straw that broke the camel's back, though, was Sony suing GeoHot into oblivion (I personally suspect they also astroturfed gaming sites to get GeoHot's hack associated with cheaters at Call of Duty, which it was not). This is the final event that triggered the misguided but potent onslaught of attacks against any and all Sony properties.
References:
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy...
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/PlayStation_3...
[Edit: fixed botched pronoun after partial sentence rewrite]