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.

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:

sonyrecon335: 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

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 bitch 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 fucking 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.