The hacker collective Anonymous has attacked Sony websites all week, taking them down intermittently in retaliation for Sony's federal lawsuit against PlayStation 3 hacker George Hotz ("GeoHot". But in recent days, "Operation Sony" morphed from a standard website attack into something a bit more personal, as some Anons formed a separate "Sony Recon" mission and began tracking down corporate executives, their wives, the schools their children attend, and the shops at which they buy their flowers. And the way they obtain that information can be ingenious—and disquieting.

Gathering this sort of information is referred to as "doxing" or collecting "dox" on targets, and such data is usually collected and distributed so that others can use it "for the lulz"—amusement, legitimate protest, or harassment.
Jack Tretton

Public information sources, if properly collated, can supply a wealth of detail. For instance, when a Sony exec's address was located, it was the work of a few moments on local government websites to find out what he pays in taxes, how large the house is, and who lives next door.

When public information just won't do, a bit of social engineering can sometimes supply an answer. It was social engineering that played a role in the Anonymous attacks on HBGary, and some Anonymous operatives are quite skilled at exploiting others.

For instance, one of Sony Recon's key players decided to find the home address and phone number of Sony Computer Entertainment America head Jack Tretton, and he claims to have succeeded using a clever social hack. Here's how it allegedly happened, over four hours:

s[i]onyrecon335: Indeed Stalin, I can't hack--But I know how to manipulate people
Stalin-chan: hey
Stalin-chan: thats better than hacking
D1sc0n3kt: lol sure it is!
…
sonyrecon335: I'm going to speak to several companies in the Area,
              see if he has ever ordered flowers for his wife etc -
              that could lead to a home address.
sonyrecon335: [Business name redacted] - Foster City, CA, 94404 -
              These people have a record of an order placed on February 11th
              by a J. Tretton. That's all I could get.
sonyrecon335: I'll give it time, and i'll get a third party to phone
              posing as Tretton.
…
sonyrecon335: Just confirmed the address I have for Tretton with
             the previously mentioned Florists - and it matched. We have him
,
sonyrecon335: Just ordered a bunch of Pizza's to be delivered
            to Tretton's house under the name Anon Mous
sonyrecon335: That's a little reward to myself for finding the address[/i]

With that information shared among channel participants, they could then turn to finding Tretton's home on Google Street View and talking about the car in Tretton's driveway. Within a half hour, sonyrecon335 decided to move beyond the pizza orders and to call the home himself.

sonyrecon335: About to phone Tretton
got2b: Haha you're going to actually do it?
irannaked: got his number?
got2b: Yeaa : )
sonyrecon335: for sure
irannaked: NICE!
irannaked: ask him why he wants to press charges against geohot
sonyrecon335: Right, let's see what he has to say.
…
sonyrecon335: ringing him now
,
sonyrecon335: Erm the naughty woman just hung up on me, I assume it was his wife
…
sonyrecon335: I asked if Jack was there, she asked who it was
          and I said Anonymous

Information collected went far beyond home addresses, though. Anons began collecting much more information on people like overall Sony boss Sir Howard Stringer and his family, with one complaining, "No one found ANY info on Stringers kids?" But they did eventually find information on Stringer, including his height, his addresses, his old fraternity, his corporate security officer, the dates he adopted his son and then his daughter, the schools he attended, his brother's name and year of birth, and the names of his parents.

One Anon even claimed that he had access to information obtained from the garbage outside Stringer's Manhattan apartment.

FresnoNews: might have some new info on their execs to add to the pp
FresnoNews: waiting a few mins
FresnoNews: couple ssn's
FresnoNews: should know in 3-5 mins
FresnoNews: someone garbagebinned stringer and is going through it
FresnoNews: got a few statements but no ssn yet
FresnoNews: lots of papers
FresnoNews: NONE shredded
…
FresnoNews: NYC residence
narc0synthesis: thats bleeping pro

Did this really happen? It's almost impossible to know. I later asked sonyrecon335, one of the more active members of the op, if it was real. He told me that it wasn't real, just a bit of channel chatter; we can't be sure either way.