200 PS3s used to create an undetectable hack attack

A farm of about 200 PlayStation 3s were used to by researchers to launch a nearly undetectable phishing attack, says NetworkWorld. Their goal was to exploit a bug in the Web site security certificates you use daily on the internet. The researchers were able to hack into Verisign's RapidSSL.com certificate authority and create fake digital certificates for any Web site on the Internet.

The PS3 farm spits out fake certificates that would be trusted by any browser. NetworkWorld says that the PS3's Cell Processor is popular with code breakers for its ability to perform cryptographic functions well.

The group plans to present their findings at the Chaos Communication Congress hacker conference, to held in Berlin on Tuesday.

Naturally, Verisign was pissed, and it looks like they were the last to know: 

"I can't express how disappointed I am that bloggers and journalists are being briefed on this but we're not, considering that we're the people who have to actually respond," said Tim Callan, vice president of product marketing with Verisign.