Sony’s PlayStation 3 has held out remarkably well against piracy since its launch. Part of its secret is the Blu-ray disk, but it has not remained completely immune to the attempts of wily hackers.
Earlier this year, it was cracked open by notorious iPhone hacker George “GeoHot” Hotz managed to bypass some of its security features.
Then just last week Australian modification reseller OzModChips reported on a new USB device which essentially tricks the PS3 into thinking its a debug console, and allows players to backup full PS3 games to the hard drive, and then play them without the disk.
Apart from its obviously nefarious game sharing potential, the device could also allow legit PS3 owners to play their purchased games without having to bother with inserting disks. Unfortunately, it also means that PS3 owners can easily back up other people’s games onto their harddrives, essentially copying them.
Ironically, the device which allows people to play games without necessarily purchasing them, comes with a hefty price tag itself – AUS$170 (±R1100). In a further twist of irony – the device has itself been cloned.
Unsurprisingly, it turns out that Sony can very easily detect Jailbroken PS3s that are logged into the PlayStation Network. According to HaxNetwork, the backup manager game ID can easily be detected by PSN, resulting in a 8002A227 error code, which leads to a full ban from the network.
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