Hackers use email to threaten Sony Pictures staff and their families
PUBLISHED : Sunday, 07 December, 2014, 6:14am
UPDATED : Sunday, 07 December, 2014, 6:14am
Agence France-Presse in Los Angeles
Hackers use email to threaten Sony Pictures staff and their families
Sony Pictures staff received a threatening email claiming to be from the hackers who breached the entertainment giant's computer network, reportedly with warnings that they and their families were "in danger".
The email from a group calling itself Guardians of Peace (GOP) also warned that "all hope will leave you and Sony Pictures will collapse", according to the industry journal Variety.
A Sony Pictures spokesman confirmed that the threatening email was sent to some staff on Friday, but not the nature of the threat. Sony Pictures confirmed the hack attack earlier in the week, calling it a "brazen" effort that netted a "large amount" of confidential information, including movies, as well as personnel and business files.
It is not clear who GOP are, but Sony Pictures has downplayed a report that North Korea was behind the attack.
Spokesman Robert Lawson did not verify the full content of the threatening email, but a transcript published by Variety warned that "removing Sony Pictures on earth is a very tiny work for our group which is a worldwide organisation".
"What we have done so far is only a small part of our further plan … All hope will leave you and Sony Pictures will collapse," the email read.
In clearly non-native English it continued: "Many things beyond imagination will happen at many places of the world. Our agents find themselves act in necessary places.
"Please sign your name to object the false of the company at the email address below if you don't want to suffer damage. If you don't, not only you but your family will be in danger."
According to security researchers, the Sony hackers leaked sensitive personal information on some 47,000 individuals, including celebrities.
An analysis by security firm Identity Finder found full names, social security numbers, birth dates and home addresses, giving "a clear path for criminals intent on committing identity fraud".
The researcher found 601 files containing this data, including more than 15,000 social security numbers belonging to existing or former Sony employees.
Sean Sullivan, a researcher for another security firm F-Secure, said the attack "is fast becoming the worst hack any company has ever publicly suffered. But he said reports suggesting North Korea was behind the incident appeared "implausible".
