Hackers Shutdown Computers At Sony Pictures & Release Filenames of Stolen Data
Hackers collective who go by the name “The Guardians of Peace†have managed to knock off all the computers offline at the Sony Pictures Entertainment offices and released the names of files that they have managed to steal from the company. Employees at Sony Pictures became aware of the problem on 24th November when their computers became unresponsive and displayed a CGI skeleton along with a threatening message and a series of web addresses that host a zip file titled “SPEData†that contains the names of files that are currently being held hostage with the hackers collective. The collective had set 11pm as the deadline on Monday but haven’t yet released the files to the public. Reddit users have been analysing the list of file names and are currently discussing it <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/hacking/comments/2n9zhv/i_used_to_work_for_sony_pictures_my_friend_still/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">I used to work for Sony Pictures. My friend still works there and sent me this. It's on every computer all over Sony Pictures nationwide. : hacking</a> whose original post highlighting the leak was deleted by Reddit. The thread created by an ex-Sony employee was accompanied by a screen grab of the hacked computers that was sent to him by a friend who was currently employed by the firm.
While the demands of GOP are not clear, they are targeting their threats towards Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton. The CEO was referred as a ‘criminal’ along with other Sony employees in a tweet sent out by the twitter account of Starship Troopers which was also hacked by the group. Sony Pictures has managed to gain access to the Starship Troopers account and several other movie promotion accounts on Twitter and deleted those tweets.
<a href="https://deadline.com/2014/11/sony-computers-hacked-skull-message-1201295288/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Sony Paralyzed By Computer Hacker Attack – Deadline</a> and #-Link-Snipped-# have confirmed from confidential sources that work at Sony Pictures has come to a standstill and it may take somewhere between <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30189029" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Sony Pictures computer system hacked in online attack - BBC News</a> to resolve the situation which has been stated as an “IT matter†by Sony Pictures in an official statement. Reddit users report that the zip file contains nearly a gigabyte of dumped text which appears to be filenames. A few notable files in the list are PDF files of scanned identity documents of various celebrities like Jonah Hill, Cameron Diaz, and Angelina Jolie along with cast and crew of various Sony Pictures movies, hundreds of documents containing passwords of various departments such as research, accounting and personal, Outlook archives, password protected documents whose passwords have been stated in the filenames themselves, sensitive corporate data such as film budgets and actors contract documents, private keys along with 1Password backups. The most ironic filenames in the list are of document file titled “INSURANCE for security breaches†and a text file titled Security Breach Course Of Action.v1â€. Reddit users were also amused to discover pirated copies of TV shows (that were not made by Sony Pictures) in the file list that was probably downloaded on an employee’s computer. #-Link-Snipped-# concludes that the hackers were quite thorough in their job as they managed to gain access to individual PC backups, file servers, SharePoint servers and much more. <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2014/11/25/7281097/sony-pictures-hackers-say-they-want-equality-worked-with-staff-to-break-in" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Sony Pictures hackers say they want 'equality,' worked with staff to break in - The Verge</a> managed to contact the hackers collective via an open e-mail account that was mentioned in the file list. A hacker who identified himself/herself as ‘lena’ said that they had worked with current Sony employees to perform this attack. They say that their motive is equality and since Sony does not want it they are engaged in an upward battle. This information should be taken with a pinch of salt as the open e-mail account could have also been accessed by someone pretending to be a member of this collective as the Spambog service can be accessed without any log-in credentials.
While the demands of GOP are not clear, they are targeting their threats towards Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton. The CEO was referred as a ‘criminal’ along with other Sony employees in a tweet sent out by the twitter account of Starship Troopers which was also hacked by the group. Sony Pictures has managed to gain access to the Starship Troopers account and several other movie promotion accounts on Twitter and deleted those tweets.
<a href="https://deadline.com/2014/11/sony-computers-hacked-skull-message-1201295288/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Sony Paralyzed By Computer Hacker Attack – Deadline</a> and #-Link-Snipped-# have confirmed from confidential sources that work at Sony Pictures has come to a standstill and it may take somewhere between <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30189029" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Sony Pictures computer system hacked in online attack - BBC News</a> to resolve the situation which has been stated as an “IT matter†by Sony Pictures in an official statement. Reddit users report that the zip file contains nearly a gigabyte of dumped text which appears to be filenames. A few notable files in the list are PDF files of scanned identity documents of various celebrities like Jonah Hill, Cameron Diaz, and Angelina Jolie along with cast and crew of various Sony Pictures movies, hundreds of documents containing passwords of various departments such as research, accounting and personal, Outlook archives, password protected documents whose passwords have been stated in the filenames themselves, sensitive corporate data such as film budgets and actors contract documents, private keys along with 1Password backups. The most ironic filenames in the list are of document file titled “INSURANCE for security breaches†and a text file titled Security Breach Course Of Action.v1â€. Reddit users were also amused to discover pirated copies of TV shows (that were not made by Sony Pictures) in the file list that was probably downloaded on an employee’s computer. #-Link-Snipped-# concludes that the hackers were quite thorough in their job as they managed to gain access to individual PC backups, file servers, SharePoint servers and much more. <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2014/11/25/7281097/sony-pictures-hackers-say-they-want-equality-worked-with-staff-to-break-in" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Sony Pictures hackers say they want 'equality,' worked with staff to break in - The Verge</a> managed to contact the hackers collective via an open e-mail account that was mentioned in the file list. A hacker who identified himself/herself as ‘lena’ said that they had worked with current Sony employees to perform this attack. They say that their motive is equality and since Sony does not want it they are engaged in an upward battle. This information should be taken with a pinch of salt as the open e-mail account could have also been accessed by someone pretending to be a member of this collective as the Spambog service can be accessed without any log-in credentials.
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