AfterDawn: News

Sony Pictures hackers promise 'Christmas gift'

Following further leaks of data stolen from Sony Pictures, hackers have promised the studio that a Christmas gift is coming soon.

"We are preparing for you a Christmas gift," the Guardians of Peace (GoP) said in a post on Pastebin.



"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. Please send an email titled by 'Merry Christmas' at the addresses below to tell us what you want in our Christmas gift."

The hackers are reportedly making a bunch of demands of Sony Pictures. As we previously reported, the group apparently demanded that Sony Pictures cancel the release of "The Interview", starring Seth Rogan and James Franco as journalists who are recruited by the CIA to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong un.

Sony is also attempting to stop large media corporations from reporting on data from the leaked e-mails, as some of the information disclosed has been of a particularly sensitive nature.

Written by: James Delahunty @ 15 Dec 2014 11:41

• Previous article

• Apology given for Amazon glitch leading to items sold for 1p

• Next article

• Xiaomi made a small $56 million profit last year

• 4 comments

• Clam_Up

  Eventually these companies will figure out that security is nothing more than trying to prevent computers from doing the very things they were designed to do: copying files and manipulating large amounts of data.
  
  There are people who can read machine code as easily as everyone else reads a newspaper. There's no way to secure anything from them, and as these companies are finding out, pissing them off is a very bad idea.
  

  Automation is thundering in like an army from the east.

  15.12.2014 20:00 #1

• Bozobub

  Um, no. Security CAN be done well. Just sitting on your thumbs is not an acceptable response; not even close.
  
  On the other hand, I couldn't wish this upon a more appropriate target. I DESPISE Sony (due to being shafted over a defective rear-projection LCD TV, among other things).

  15.12.2014 21:00 #2

• Clam_Up

  Originally posted by Bozobub: Um, no. Security CAN be done well. Just sitting on your thumbs is not an acceptable response; not even close. Even within some of the most secure systems running, holes are discovered with surprising regularity. Security patches are far too frequent to just say "it can be done well, so there's nothing to worry about."
  
  I stand by my statement. Denial just makes hacking efforts that much easier.
  
  ...just sayin'
  

  Automation is thundering in like an army from the east.

  15.12.2014 21:56 #3

• Bozobub

  I'll have you notice, I did NOT say "there's nothing to worry about". There's nothing about "denial" in my statement. Yet, Sony has in the past - and is implicated also in the present as having - been quite shoddy in their security practices, as MANY businesses have been.
  
  No, you can't make it impossible to hack a given system, but you can damn well make it supremely difficult AND contain the damage when it happens. The scale of this hack shows Sony did neither (not a surprise).

  15.12.2014 22:45 #4