According to a new report, Engineers at Sony Computer Entertainment invited Hotz to its US publishing headquarters to discuss system security. The company, which filed a lawsuit against the rebellious coder in January 2011, met with the young hacker roughly four months later, in May, to discuss how he broke past well-protected PS3 security systems.
Although many would consider it to be a threatening environment for a hacker, Hotz had "found a roomful of PS3 engineers who were 'respectful'." According to the account of the meeting, they had "wanted to learn more about how he had beaten their system."
"If there were going to be lawyers there. I was going to be the biggest a**hole ever," he told The New Yorker.
According to Sony, the company is "always interested in exploring all avenues to better safeguard our systems and protect consumers."
In 2011, Sony fell victim to multiple PSN hacks, including 105 million PSN and SOE accounts being compromised in the time between the lawsuit and the meeting with Hotz. Online hacking group, Anonymous, suspected for the PSN and SOE hacks declared it was attacking Sony execs and security in response to the lawsuit against Hotz.
