Hackers promise Sony a 'Christmas gift' as company deals with fallout from leaks
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 16 December, 2014, 8:38pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 16 December, 2014, 9:09pm
Agence France-Presse in Los Angeles
Sony Pictures Entertainment advised its current and former employees to be on the alert for fraudsters looking to use their stolen data. AP
Sony Pictures sought to reassure its staff that a massive cyberattack will not destroy the Hollywood studio, after hackers promised a big "Christmas gift", reports said.
Staff were called together in Los Angeles on Monday to hear how the company is responding to the ongoing hacking attack, which has produced a string of damaging and highly embarrassing leaks.
"This will not take us down," Sony Pictures chief Michael Lynton told staff, according to industry journal Variety, adding: "You should not be worried about the future of this studio."
The meeting was also addressed by the company's co-chairwoman, Amy Pascal, who apologised again for some of her leaked e-mail comments, according to entertainment news website Deadline Hollywood.
In those e-mails Pascal notably made racially insensitive remarks about US President Barack Obama. She had already apologised publicly.
Sony staff approached for comment at the meeting declined to comment.
Monday's meeting came after the so-called Guardians of Peace hacking group posted a statement on Pastebin.com promising: "We are preparing for you a Christmas gift. The gift will be larger quantities of data. And it will be more interesting. The gift will surely give you much more pleasure and put Sony Pictures into the worst state."
The group has demanded Sony stop the release on Christmas Day of comedy The Interview, depicting a fictional CIA plot to kill North Korea's leader.
The FBI, which is probing the hack, met Sony staff last week, a spokesman said.
The latest vow from the hacking group came after a series of damaging leaks about Sony salaries, employee health records, unpublished scripts and e-mail exchanges about movie stars and filmmakers, published by websites including Gawker.com
Sony has been thrown into damage control by the unflattering leaks - including a producer labelling Angelina Jolie a "minimally talented spoiled brat".
The leaks included an e-mail exchange in which Pascal asked film producer Scott Rudin what she should ask Obama at a "stupid" fundraising breakfast. "Would he like to finance some movies?" joked Rudin, to which Pascal replied: "I doubt it. Should I ask him if he liked Django?" in reference to Quentin Tarantino's slave movie Django Unchained.
