The investigation of Sony Pictures’ massive data hack continues, as the company is yet to draw final conclusions, but Re/code has obtained an internal email sent to employees by CEO Michael Lynton containing a security note from Kevin Mandia, head of security firm Mandiant, which is helping Sony throughout this crisis.
FROM EARLIER: The latest big leak in the Sony hack is a huge file directory for passwords… called ‘Password’
According to the note, the attack on Sony is “unprecedented,” and no company could have been prepared for this specific kind of cyber destruction.
“This attack is unprecedented in nature,” Mandia wrote. “The malware was undetectable by industry standard antivirus software and was damaging and unique enough to cause the FBI to release a flash alert to warn other organizations of this critical threat.”
“In fact, the scope of this attack differs from any we have responded to in the past, as its purpose was to both destroy property and release confidential information to the public. The bottom line is that this was an unparalleled and well planned crime, carried out by an organized group, for which neither SPE nor other companies could have been fully prepared,” he added.
Meanwhile, The New York Times reports that Sony employees on Friday were hit with a threatening email from a party that identified themselves as Guardians of Peace (GOP), the hacker group that attacked Sony.
The 202-word email was written in “broken and somewhat nonsensical sentences filled with spelling errors,” the Times says. “Not only you but your family will be in danger,” hackers said. “What we have done so far is only a small part of our further plan.”
The publication also revealed that North Korea has, again, denied any involvement in the hack, though the country praised the hackers behind it. A spokesman for the North Korean National Defense Commission told the Korean Central News Agency that the attack “might be a righteous deed of the supporters and sympathizers with” North Korea, and an effort to “put an end to U.S. imperialism.”
