Like most game and console vendors, Sony fights a never-ending battle
for control of its own platform against a shadowy community of hacker
enthusiasts and modders who want to exploit Sony’s hardware for all its
worth. It’s a near-constant cat and mouse game, which made the 2010 hack
of the company’s PS3 Platform Master encryption key by famed PS3 hacker George Hotz
(aka geohot) all the more damaging to the company. The key, once
published, left the PS3 wide open, allowing hackers and other modders to
run any software on PS3 consoles as if it were officially licensed by
Sony. And, because the master key was based in hardware, Sony had little recourse to patch the hole – short of an expensive product recall.
November, 2010: PS3 Master Key Hacked, Leaked
Like most game and console vendors, Sony fights a never-ending battle
for control of its own platform against a shadowy community of hacker
enthusiasts and modders who want to exploit Sony’s hardware for all its
worth.
