guardiansofpeace
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US: North Korea's been hacking everyone since 2009
US authorities believe the North Korean government has been using an army of hackers called "Hidden Cobra" to deploy cyber attacks over the past eight years. That's according to the Technical Alert formally issued by the Homeland Security and the FBI, which contains the details and tools NK's cyber army has been using to infiltrate the media, financial, aerospace and critical infrastructure sectors in the US and around the globe. The government agencies issued the alert after tracing the IP addresses of a malware variant used to manage NK's DDoS attacks to North Korean computers. While other players can spoof their IPs to frame NK, the US is encouraging cyber analysts to be on the lookout, warning them that the Asian country will continue to use cyber operations to advance its government's military and strategic objectives.
Sony reaches multi-million dollar settlement with ex-employees over hack
Nearly a year after being infiltrated and bullied by hacker group GOP (Guardians of Peace), Sony is still feeling the effects of the breach. One of the larger issues the company has had to contend with is former employees suing it claiming it didn't do enough to protect their data. According to a filing on Monday, those employees and Sony have come to an agreement. The multi-million dollar settlement includes a $2 million fund to reimburse victims that are part of the class action for any expenses they've incurred protecting themselves from identity theft as a result of the hack up to $1,000 each. Sony will also pay up to $10,000 per person for losses as a result of identity theft up to $2.5 million. Sony will also bear the costs of the suit including attorney's fees up to $3,490,000. The terms of the settlement still need to be approved by the court. [Image credit: AFP/Getty Images]
WikiLeaks adds 276,394 more leaked Sony docs to its database
WikiLeaks has dumped a second enormous cache of internal documents from Sony into its searchable database. In April of this year, it added internal Sony emails that shined a light on the inner workings of the studio including, the decision making process surrounding projects, employee information, pay discrepancies between male and female actors and racist and derogatory remarks made by Sony executives. This latest addition of 276,394 searchable documents includes calendars, event planning and expense reports. These documents have been available online since the Guardians of Peace breach back in November 2014, WikiLeaks is just making easier to search through the files.
WikiLeaks lets you search Sony's hacked emails (updated)
When a group calling itself the Guardians of Peace hacked Sony Pictures in late 2014, thousands of private emails and information about top executives, actors and Hollywood hotshots hit the 'net. The messages revealed pay discrepancies between male and female stars, and contained copies of films that hadn't yet seen release. Some of these emails contained racist and derogatory comments from Sony Pictures staff, including co-chair Amy Pascal, who consequently left the company in February. Now, all of these emails are available in searchable form on WikiLeaks. Anyone interested in digging through Sony Pictures' email archives can now search by specific term, sender, recipient, attached filename or email ID.
Sony Pictures co-chair steps down months after massive hack
The hacking of Sony Pictures may not have stopped The Interview from being released, but now the Deadline reports the studio has announced co-chairman Amy Pascal will step down. Pascal has been with the company since the 80s when it was just Columbia Pictures, and her profile notes Sony had 95 movies hit #1 since 2000 under her leadership. In November news broke that Sony Pictures had suffered a crippling hack, disabling computers and locking employees out of the network for days, and what followed got even worse as information leaked out in bunches.
The hackers who hit Sony Pictures also threatened CNN (update)
The Guardians of Peace didn't just threaten Sony Pictures and theaters that planned to show The Interview; it also shook its fist at the press, too. The Intercept has obtained an FBI alert noting that the group implied threats against a "news media organization" on December 20th. While the bulletin doesn't name the company, The Desk's Matthew Keys has copies of the Pastebin-based messages (since removed) showing that CNN was the target. The GOP sarcastically complimented CNN on its "investigation" of the hacking group and linked a video calling the TV network an idiot, but didn't warn of any specific consequences. Update: Writer David Garrett Jr. has stepped forward as the source of this particular posting. According to Garrett, he has no connection to North Korea or the Guardians of Peace group, and just wanted to point out media inaccuracies.
President Obama says canceling release of 'The Interview' was a mistake
Sony's already acquiescing to demands made by the North Korean hackers associated with the Guardians of Peace, and the US' commander-in-chief is none too pleased by it. In a press conference that led off with a recap of his past year in office, President Barack Obama said in no uncertain terms that Sony's decision to cancel the theatrical release of The Interview was "a mistake." "We cannot have a society in which some dictator someplace can start imposing censorship here in the United States," Obama said. "If somebody is able to intimidate folks out of releasing a satirical movie, imagine what they start doing if they see a documentary they don't like or news reports they don't like. Or even worse, imagine if producers or distributors start engaging in self-censorship because they don't want to offend the sensibilities of someone whose sensibilities probably need to be offended. That's not who we are. That's not what America's about."
Sony's hackers threaten people who go see 'The Interview'
The Guardians of Peace (they of the titanic Sony Pictures hack) showed off an almost benevolent side this weekend when it offered to withhold personal employee information should those victims object. Lest you start feeling pangs of empathy though, the group -- or someone purporting to be a member of the group -- issued a public threat that seems to target moviegoers and theaters that will run the James Franco/Seth Rogen comedy The Interview. "Soon all the world will see what an awful movie Sony Pictures Entertainment has made," the note reads. "The world will be full of fear. Remember the 11th of September 2001. We recommend you to keep yourself distant from the places at that time." However sinister the group's message was, you should obviously take it with a grain of salt: The Department of Homeland Security told Mashable that there was "no credible intelligence" regarding an actual attack in the coming weeks.
Hackers won't release Sony workers' personal info if they object
Here's an odd twist to the Sony Pictures hack: the attackers are becoming courteous... relatively speaking, of course. The Guardians of Peace are threatening to release yet more of the studio's data as a "Christmas gift," but they're also offering to withhold personal information if employees ask to keep it out of the public eye. It's not clear what prompted the sudden concern for privacy, although it may come from a realization that the leaks are hurting ordinary workers, not just actors and executives. It's a half-hearted gesture -- real privacy wouldn't involve leaks in the first place, after all -- but it suggests that the hacking group won't just dump everything it has. Not that Sony will take much comfort in this, mind you. The Guardians claim that the future data release will be "more interesting," which is no mean feat when previous posts have included movie scripts and celebrity conversations. Update: And now Sony is sending legalese notes to news organizations, demanding that they stop reporting on the leaks and delete any data that media has received from the hackers. And if they don't comply? Sony said it will have "no choice but to hold you responsible from any damage or loss resulting from such use or dissemination by you." [Image credit: Toshifumi Kitamura/AFP/Getty Images]
