Sony to search PS3 hacker's computer

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 11 February, 2011

GeoHot's hard drive exposed.

A US judge has ordered PlayStation 3 hacker George Hotz to turn over his hard drive to Sony for inspection.

Sony is allowed to retrieve information that relates to the hacking of the console, according to Wired.com.

21-year-old George Hotz, aka GeoHot, must meet with Sony to turn his computer over.

GeoHot was the first to fully crack the PlayStation 3 wide open. After publishing his jailbreak code on his website and a video explaining how to use it on YouTube, Sony sued Hotz on a Digital Millennium Copyright Act claim, alleging he distributed devices that circumvented anti-piracy controls.

"Here, I find probable cause that your client has got these things on his computer," US District Judge Susan Illston said.

"It's a problem when more than one thing is kept on the computer. I'll make sure the order is and will be that Sony is only entitled to isolate ... the information on the computer that relates to the hacking of the PlayStation."

The judge reneged, however, on an order that Hotz "retrieve" the code from anybody he might have forwarded it to.

"It's information. It can't be retrieved. It's just not practical," Illston said. "What would they do, Xerox it and mail it back?"

Sony is threatening to sue anybody who posts the jailbreak code - even though made-up PlayStation marketing man Kevin Butler unwittingly published the PS3's root key on Twitter.

Sony's attempt to subpoena internet titans Google, YouTube, Twitter, SlashDot and PayPal - and find out where notorious PS3 hackers Fail0verflow live – was denied yesterday.

Illston scheduled a hearing for the setback motion for 11th March. Sony seeks unspecified damages.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (66) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Terribly_Mauled #1 1 year ago

    "'An also," said the Judge, "anyone know how this stable door lock works? And have y'all seen ma horse?"
    Edited by Terribly_Mauled at 11/02/11 @ 14:55

  • gamingdave #2 1 year ago

    How on earth do you look on someones computer, a hackers at that, for only data related to Sony?

    Do they think its in Users\GeeHot\Sony\Jailbreak?

  • customfirmware #3 1 year ago

    Hopes he get sunk like liksang.com( by the way I loved that site.)
    Edited by customfirmware at 11/02/11 @ 15:03

  • Phishfood #4 1 year ago

    Get ready to shift through 500GB of furry porn

  • BigDannyH #5 1 year ago

    Has this guy only done this to show off? He doesn't seem to have attempted to make money out of it so, other than for personal use, what's his motive.

    He's bloody annoying, whatever he did it for. Maybe he's just taken Xbox fanboyism to the next level.

    I wonder if there's an achievement for that ...

  • Rodster #6 1 year ago

    Sony can you say Wikileaks? Give it up Sony it's over and while you're at it you might want to subpoena Kevin Butlers computer too. :-D

  • darkmorgado #7 1 year ago

    Do they really think that he doesn't have a harddrive, completely cleansed of data, ready to hand over to them? Or that he doesnt have any data backed up online?

    "oh yes, here you go, have my harddrive which has lots of stuff on it that you might be interested in".

  • GamesConnoisseur #8 1 year ago

    Furry porn?

    Sony maybe prefers shaven or well trimmed

  • NorUraeus #9 1 year ago

    If he tries to delete or hide his stuff he runs a real risk of legal trouble on the basis of having done just that. Obstruction of justice etc.

  • Ranger101 #10 1 year ago

    Trucrypt.

  • TonyCocaCola #11 1 year ago

    Its fun to stay at the D M C A!

  • lennon #12 1 year ago

    Id be surprised if he waitied this long to think about deleting his hard drive.

  • Lunastra78 #13 1 year ago

    This is getting a bit silly, Sony. I told you I'd punch his face a few times for the low low price of me getting my hands on Uncharted 3 a week early, and that offer still stands!

  • captain_Carl #14 1 year ago

    Good.

  • mingster #15 1 year ago

    Start - Search - for files and Folders - Metldr Key.
    Job done.. return hard drives.
    Sony saved from financial ruin... O wait what about the keys that are on the internet..

  • Kaminari #16 1 year ago

    I have a blank hard drive if that can help you, George...

  • respectyourelder #17 1 year ago

    @TonyCocaCola

    Genius! wish i'd thought of that one...

  • Mkwone #18 1 year ago

    Would a blank harddrive do him any favours? It's not as though he's denying his actions, he's trying to argue that his actions are right (In his eyes).

  • butler` #19 1 year ago

    I'd just hand it over. With a powerful magnet in the same hand.

  • Jolly_Armadillo #20 1 year ago

    How can people side with geohotz. A minority get some kind of benefit from this while the majority just see it as an inconvenience, yet there seems to be people en mass defending geohotz on this site....

  • Rodster #21 1 year ago

    Here's the code that will bring down Geohot....R U N D M C :-D

  • arcam #22 1 year ago

    Because some things are more important than personal benefit.

  • kalinichenko #23 1 year ago

    Sony:Whats in this folder?
    Geohot:ummm.........
    Sony:is that porn?

  • el_pollo_diablo #24 1 year ago

    @Jolly_Armadillo

    Because people get all uppity when they think their rights are in some way being infringed. Plus Geohot is just a lone Che Guevara figure, an every-man standing up for all of us.

    Fuck Sony's rights though, that's different. They're a big company and are therefore automatically bastards and in the wrong.
    Edited by el_pollo_diablo at 11/02/11 @ 16:06

  • riseer #25 1 year ago

    If anyone here thought Sony would just bend over and take it you are not very smart.This guy made it public and everyone was able to make jailbreak hacks.He shoulda just told people he hacked it w/o saying how he hacked it.Maybe then this wouldn't had happen to him.When you piss on a major company like Sony your playing with fire.

  • Jolly_Armadillo #26 1 year ago

    Well he's not standing up for any of my interests, and certainly is no benefit to me either

  • davisorle #27 1 year ago

    Post deleted at 15:13:14 09-05-2012

  • Stepharneo #28 1 year ago

    If Sony don't frape him they've missed a serious opportunity.

  • HL706 #29 1 year ago

    People are defending him because he hasn't actually done anything wrong/illegal.

  • Freek #30 1 year ago

    @32, Exactly. There is nothing morrally or legally wrong with modifying a device you own, nor making that public. The iPhone jailbreaking case showed that.
    Nothing that Geohot has done directly involved piracy, infact at this point, you still can't just run pirated games.
    In order to do that, you have to use the key to create your own software that runs illegal games. At that point you are breaking the law. But that doesn't involve Geohot.

    Sony is simply doing the best it can to defend it's intrests. They don't like anybody doing anything with their devices and the only way out they see is to throw some laywers at the problem. That's thier right, but it doesn't make them look good either.

    Sure, Geohot is a bitt of dick. He presents himself poorly, and just comes across as an arogant douchebag. But that also isn't against the law.
    Edited by Freek at 11/02/11 @ 16:27

  • Machiavellian #31 1 year ago

    All these little things Sony are doing are intimating steps more than anything else. They are likely not going to turn up anything more than what Sony already have. The key issue is still weather or not the firmware from Geohot is illegal under the DMCA or not. From what people have said about the firmware and what it does and doesn't do, Sony really do not have anything to stand on. Maybe they are hoping to make Geohot pay a lot of money to defend himself but even then, this kid will probably end up having a movie or book come out to help him with that. To take on to big corporations and come out the winner even if you are a antihero make those media boys see green.

  • Iain815 #32 1 year ago

    Fire up that electromagnet!

  • callum9999 #33 1 year ago

    Surely if he deletes things then he will be charged with being in breach of court/obstruction of justice etc. etc.?

    If Sony get the right experts to analyse it then I'm sure they will be able to tell if things were recently deleted - and if he gives a different one to the computer he used to hack it - shouldn't that be obvious?

    I don't quite know how good hard drive recovery is (not great if you get it repaired by Currys etc. obviously, but the right people with the right software?) so maybe I'm wrong?

  • arcam #34 1 year ago

    All these little things Sony are doing are intimating steps more than anything else.

    Well, it's working. In five years I've never had a comment deleted from Eurogamer until today.

  • KDR_11k #35 1 year ago

    It's a pretty common marketing strategy to hire shills that pose as users on forums, throw a few into a forum and incite something to make real users join in and generate a feeling that the general opinion is X when that's really marketing infused.

  • yupyup #36 1 year ago

    Same as above. Worthy of deletion! Well I never. Well here's another code you can delete Eurogamer:

    UP UP DOWN DOWN LEFT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT B A START

  • arcam #37 1 year ago

    @yupyup

    You sunk my battleship!

  • BuddyChrist #38 1 year ago

    Lunastra78.... I think you are on to something there.

    I will join you with that, AND I'll throw in a Windows search on the perp's hard drive.

    Ctrl F, "i will destroy Sony Bwahaha"
    Maybe even plant a nasty nasty document involving dirty dirty Sony deeds.

    Job done. Knees broken. Free games for a year please.

  • Feanor #39 1 year ago

    You're right, callumm9999. If he tries to delete anything it'll be obvious and he could end up in jail and facing huge fines for contempt of court.

  • SeesThroughAll #40 1 year ago

    What happens if the drive is encrypted (with non sony style encrpytion)

    Geohot is obligated to disclose (decrypt) encrypted content, as long as it is suspected to be illegal (which is the case).
    Edited by SeesThroughAll at 11/02/11 @ 17:06

  • NotSoSlim #41 1 year ago

    Serves him right for looking to claim game for something he didn't even do.

    Other hackers stay hidden he appears on tv....idiot

  • Murton #42 1 year ago

    I'd personally love it if he gave them a different computer or HDD, or if he handed it over with any encryption intact or had infact deleted the relevant data as that would make him guilty of defying a court order and obstruction/perversion of justice, which I believe is a felony in the US and comes with mandatory jail time.

    I'm not sure what exactly will be accomplished by searching his computer though. They might dig up some clues on any potential accomplices or anyone he's passed the keys to but beyond that there doesn't seem to be anything to gain really.

  • SG #43 1 year ago

    Bullshit. Hackers hack for the challenge and to run homebrew. Pirates take advantage. Sony should have kept Other OS on there, then there would be no excuse.

  • Machiavellian #44 1 year ago

    Serves him right for looking to claim game for something he didn't even do.

    Other hackers stay hidden he appears on tv....idiot

    No risk no rewards. Geohot stands to gain more from this suit then Sony.

  • dsmx #45 1 year ago

    Chances are he has 10's of hard drives all he has to do is hand over the ones with no incriminating info on and he's good...

  • Redeye #46 1 year ago

    CCleaner.

    Just saying. ;)

  • Lamb #47 1 year ago

    I am torn. I am with Sony in that I want to see Sony make money so they can attract the best talent and make better games well into the future. You reward me, I reward you. Win/Win

    However at the end of a consoles retail life, when it has ceased printing money, it should be more than a paperweight and thats when people like Geohot are needed.

    Granted Geohot got his timing wrong on this one but the whole "piracy" argument is blown well out of proportion as Sony brings value on many levels, multiplayer, PSN store, game patches, credit card security etc..

    Unreasonably high prices should not be forced upon us as they are by price dictation or when a console first comes to market. Hackers like Geohot help create a more reasonable transition.

    The only concern in this case is how nasty it turns, and how much more nasty it could be next time when we rely so much on digital data. So hopefully Sony pulls its punches a litte bit and remember it still has not addressed third world pricing. And the next Geohot could be from there.

  • dwalker109 #48 1 year ago

    The depressingly common opinion that defending yourself against a large corporation is somehow stupid is, well, depressing. There are ideological reasons for this happening, and I have immense respect for those who stand up to any corporate behemoth.

    This should not be taken as a statement of support, but I do watch with interest. Corporations need to be kept on their toes.

  • IneptPercy #49 1 year ago

    Good job I have it all backup up here...

    ps... this is a joke before a Sony man abseils through my windows and steals my computer.

  • MizzouGaming #50 1 year ago

    SONY's ego is once again going to bury them. SONY has nothing to gain by doing this, NOTHING. They are not only promoting the PS3 hack they are paving a golden career path for the guy they are trying to sue. Its like SONY is running their own reality show, Hacker Idol. Hack our current and future platforms and we will make you a superstar via thoughtless litigation and our own ability to keep our ego in check. Hackers are lining up as we speak ready to get their hands on the NGP hoping to be SONY's next HACKER IDOL.

  • GamerGuides #51 1 year ago

    He can use a HD wiping tool (like the US DoD use) to remove all traces of the content. Not detectable as ever being there (hence why someone like the DoD use such software), or perhaps only wiping what won't incriminate him.

    And besides, Hard drives CAN go faulty... ;)

  • coolbritannia #52 1 year ago

    Pathetic actions from Sony, I assume they don't know how to make it hack proof now, and rather than pay Geohot they'd rather fart around on his machine reverse engineering his hack?

  • blackbriar101 #53 1 year ago

    Better get rid of that granny porn you smug little prick.

  • SavageEvil #54 1 year ago

    Lol, lots of stupid comments on here, there is no real way to remove data once it's been put on a HDD. In fact no matter how many times you delete and overwrite it, it can still be retrieved. Data is nothing but zero's and one's on disk anyway, delete just makes it so the way it was arranged it cannot be read anymore. GeoHotz cannot remove any data from his pc from the date the subpoena was stamped I believe. Assuming Hotz thought this far ahead and rid his HDD of sensitive information, but as sure as Hotz was prior to this development I'm doubting he did this. This is what happens when people are too cocksure of themselves, I don't care about him hacking the PS3 big deal. Just releasing the keys into the public was the problem I had, meaning any fool with the right tool can start annoying legitimate gamers online.

  • DVR #55 1 year ago

    I just read THIS as a response to the case against Geohotz

  • betrayerofhope #56 1 year ago

    geohot has bitten off more than he could chew. He won against apple and thought yep i am the man. He should have realised that he was dealin with a company that saw vast amount of piracy on it's primary hand held console. And that company which was pissed off already with the situation only got enraged when it saw him chest beating over the airways.

    Geohot, sometimes you gotta pay the price. Just hope it's not too heavy

  • Rev.StuartCampbell #57 1 year ago

    "'Lol, lots of stupid comments on here, there is no real way to remove data once it's been put on a HDD."

    Arguably not, though I'd wager someone like George Hotz knows a lot more about it that you or I do. What I'm absolutely 100% certain of is that it IS possible to buy a second hard drive, copy over everything to it except incriminating data you don't want people to see, and swap the drives over then hand Sony the "clean" one. Even I could manage that.

  • chaz1873rfc #58 1 year ago

    sony FTW.hackers lose YAY

  • ljvasey #59 1 year ago

    They should hire this guy, pay him a good salary as a security consultant... If he'd stoop that low ;)

  • SavageEvil #60 1 year ago

    "Arguably not, though I'd wager someone like George Hotz knows a lot more about it that you or I do. What I'm absolutely 100% certain of is that it IS possible to buy a second hard drive, copy over everything to it except incriminating data you don't want people to see, and swap the drives over then hand Sony the "clean" one. Even I could manage that. "

    Think about what you just said for a second, now think about the terms for him handing over the computer which he used to circumvent the PS3 with. I'm pretty sure they could tell how long the HDD was in use for, whether or not the data on it was recently put on there, seriously computers are incredibly sophisticated machines and when you do crimes on them, they don't seem to care about sides. So while your idea might come across as something sneaky and a way out, could lead to more problems if he is caught. The machine itself, the CPU and within the BIOS has enumerators that can give up a whole host of information about devices that were once connected to it, how long this particular machine has been in use, how many times it's crashed, how many times the chassis has been opened...as I said computers are pretty sophisticated pieces of machinery.

    Either way, if Geohot hasn't done anything wrong, then he shouldn't have a problem complying with the courts order. I still say he was a bit of a douche for ever releasing those keys, could have got himself a worth while career making more money than he probably ever will in his life, especially after this comes to a head. Someone said this "problem with the world is all the fools are cocksure, and all the intelligent people are full of doubt".

    I wish computer illiterate people would stop thinking you can delete data on a PC, you cannot. All you can do is write and rewrite over and over, but forensic scientists can still find and recombine the data, that's how police find those hidden pedophile photos on people's HDD long after they supposedly deleted them and did one of those special deletes that supposedly makes it impossible to recover the data. Only way to be 100% certain is to physically destroy the drive platters...well Geohot doesn't have that luxury. Ok people there are only two ways to remove data, and one is an act of God, which won't happen and the other would guarantee GeoHot a trip to the clink. So if he never had stuff on that drive to begin with is the only way to be in the clear.
    Edited by SavageEvil at 12/02/11 @ 18:26

  • dirtysteve #61 1 year ago

    It seems odd that the judge is letting Sony tamper with evidence like that.

  • Ashcroft #62 1 year ago

    Are some people really under the impression that you can't delete data from a drive? Fill the drive's free space with junk data, and anything you've deleted is gone forever.

    Then go to jail for deleting evidence.

  • Mydoom #63 1 year ago

    are you guys still talking about this?
    haha thats fucking funny dude cheeky_error just as the hackers are lining up for the ngp the clinking but rammers are lining up ready to score some fresh white bait hehe.

  • cjs #64 1 year ago

    SavageEvil: While it is indeed quite difficult to remove all trace of information previously written to a hard drive, being able to do so is not necessary to make information irretrievable. If you prepare correctly, you need only make a large part of a very small bit of data irretrievable in order to effectively wipe the drive.

    You will need to have your data on an encrypted partition, but that's de rigueur for security-conscious techies these days. (I've been using encrypted partitions on almost all of not only my laptops but also desktops and servers for years. I'd no more consider not doing so than, oh, not using revision control.) Note that I do say, "security-conscious" here: most techies are not, but I'd suspect that anybody who cracks encryption schemes for fun is.

    Given that, in the most common case there will be a unique encryption key somewhere on the drive that is necessary to decrypt the partition, and this key will in turn be encrypted by a passphrase. Note that the passphrase cannot be used to decrypt the information in the partition: it can only be used to decrypt the key that in turn can decrypt that information.

    So, use a disk scrubbing tool to erase the sector containing that key, and you're set. After using a good scrubbing tool you're unlikely to be able to recover the entire key, even if you can recover parts. And it won't take long since, though a scrub takes many passes, there's only one or a few sectors that need to be written and rewritten.

    Note that this applies only to standard rotating media; flash memory devices are a different story.

  • TwitchyMcTwitch #65 1 year ago

    "Sony is threatening to sue anybody who posts the jailbreak code - even though made-up PlayStation marketing man Kevin Butler unwittingly published the PS3's root key on Twitter."

    I hear he's scheduled to appear in court on monday.

  • PlugMonkey #66 1 year ago

    With the upfront disclaimer that I have no idea what I'm talking about:

    If every piece of data that has ever been on my hard drive is still on my hard drive, doesn't that make my hard drive infinite in its capacity?