Sony Pictures has been the victim of a massive cyber attack a few days ago, with hackers having stolen as much as 100 terabytes of data including various unreleased Sony movies, and plenty of business and personnel data. After investigating the matter, Sony appears to be convinced that North Korea was behind the attack, but the country has denied any involvement after previously refusing to flat-out deny such allegations.
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According to information obtained by Re/code, Sony should name North Korea as the source of the attack, though the company is yet to make the announcement. “The investigation continues into this very sophisticated cyber attack,” a spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, a North Korean diplomat in New York told Voice of America that his country was not involved in the hack.
“Linking the DPRK to the Sony hacking is another fabrication targeting the country,” the anonymous official said. “My country publicly declared that it would follow international norms banning hacking and piracy.”
Even so, when a North Korean government spokesperson was asked about the hack, he refused to deny involvement, offering a mysterious “wait and see” reply.
The hack is believed to be a response from North Korea to Sony’s The Interview movie, a comedy about a couple of reporters turned CIA agents who have been assigned an assassination mission in North Korea, whose target is none other than the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un.
Meanwhile, BuzzFeed got its hands on some 40 gigabytes of data from the heist, which includes a treasure trove of personal information such as “employee criminal background checks, salary negotiations, and doctors’ letters explaining the medical rationale for leaves of absence.” Other leaked details include 3,500 Social Security numbers for U.S. staff and salaries for 6,800 global employees, and even an unreleased pilot script written by Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan.
“Sony Pictures appears to have suffered the most embarrassing and all-encompassing hack of internal corporate data ever made public,” BuzzFeed writes.
