when were claims like that made?

please find me a quote for the sony rep who asked hackers to hack the company... if you do find it we can email sony and have him fired

furthermore this part : "most companies aren't both negligent and then shouing "Hey come hack me!" " doesn't really make sense in the context of hackers fighting for their own gains. I say that because assuming by "Hey come hack me!" you mean offending hackers, how is a company supposed to be aware of all of the actions they can take that would offend hackers? For example in this situatiopn with sony, how would sony have known that going to trial against geohot would have brought on this kind of reaction? ( assuming of course sony hasn't hired a team of psychics ) personally i was quite surprised by what happened 

I'm saying that it's not morally justified. I agree Sony was irresponsible, but that doesn't make what was done "right." It just makes Sony less of a victim than they otherwise would be perceived as.

Common sense.  If you really were suprised... I feel sorry for you.

Why would it matter?  Well because there are dozens and dozens of systems out there, and it's a matter of just picking ones out randomly to hack.

Sony freaking out so badly about a hacker shows a complete lack of knowledge of how to deals with hackers, which suggests they probably have crappy security.

@OP:

It's interesting to note that MS hires an external company for the tasks needed to defend itself from many of the vulnerabilities listed (obviously excluding the encryption of stored sensible data), and that external company protects MS using open source virtualization SW running on open source host OS' like Linux to perform those tasks. Sony will better do the same, if it hasn't an internal division highly specialized for the job (although it's quite curious that MS, the biggest OS producer in the world, hasn't one, maybe it's one of the reasons why Windows Server never had any hope to become market leader and never will have).

I know, but I'd rather take those leaked reports even half assed then "Hey we did it!  Yeah we've had nothing against Sony, but saying we hacked them will make us look bigger than we are".

lol well im quite sorry but i guess you'll have to excuse my lack of understanding of hackers maybe some day i'll fall in a vat of nuclear waste and gain the ability to predict exactly what will offend people and how they will respond, but i guess until then i'll wallow in ignorance... if it happens though i'll volunteer to be a watch dog for sony

Dude, it doesn't take super powers... just basic comon sense and reasoning.  Lots of people were predicting this when the hotz case started.

Targeting hackers... makes you a bigger target of hackers.  Pretty obvious really.

so therefore the assumption can be reached that according to you anyone who has some applitude in some field should use that skill for payback against anyone who attacks or offends someone they know... therefore since i hypothetically have some skill in carpentry when my buddy got screwed over by his boss the other day i should have taken some tools and effed the bosses house up right? and the boss should have been aware ( through psychic powers supposedly ) that i was coming for him ( hypothetically ).... yup i see where you're coming from now... very sensible

There is some seriously fallacious bullshit making the rounds in this thread. Most of it due to people equating hackers with god like beings. Hackers cannot magically create connections where no such connection exists. For instance if a system is not setup for remote access that system cannot be hacked. Without a common architecture it is also impossible to hack. Not to mention if the system only functions in high level encryption it is impossible to hack. There are a lot of ways for a system to be impervious to hacking. 

The problem for companies is balancing security with the need for functionality. Companies want system access that can take place anywhere through off the shelf hardware. They want to use the internet as their vehicle. They want consumers to be able to access their network. Those desires conflict with the needs of security. Thus there is a tradeoff. Even so it is not impossible for a open system to be prohibitively difficult to hack.

Anyway this notion that all systems can be hacked is bullshit. There are hundreds if not thousands of networks around the world that are never going to be hacked, because it is just impossible to hack into them. They were designed to be that way. Whether they be behind ten feet of reinforced concrete, work with their own operating system, or use encryption that would take longer then the life span of the Universe to unravel.

Also please stop citing Pentagon hacks. The U.S. Military stores classified information in networks that are not internet accessible. They basically limit their exposure. That is why your never going to find out a hacker has found out what the skin of a Nighthawk is made out of, or confirm the existence of the Aurora. It is more like petty burglary, then someone robbing Fort Knox. The hackers have basically hacked office gossip, sloppy subcontractors, and public relations websites.