Sony Continues To Recover From Possible North Korean Cyberattack

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
In the wake of rumors that North Korea was somehow involved, Sony’s movie studio has reportedly recruited FireEye Inc’s Mandiant forensics unit to help clean up the aftermath of a cyberattack which left their computer systems largely unusable.
Last week, attempts to log into Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) networks and email accounts were met with an ominous image of a red skeleton indicating that the computers had been “Hacked by #GOP” before the system went dark. The group responsible, known as Guardians of Peace, claimed that they had obtained sensitive Sony files and had threatened to release them online unless their demands were met.
The incident is being investigated by law enforcement and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), sources told Reuters reporters Jim Finkle and Ron Grover on Monday, and technicians were said to be making progress in repairing damage caused by the incident. Email systems were expected to be back online sometime Monday.
Mandiant, the Reuters reporters explained, is “an incident response firm that helps victims of breaches identify the extent of attacks, clean up networks and restore systems” that has handled some of the largest data breaches to date, including last year’s holiday attack on Target. FireEye representatives declined their request for comment, however.
On Friday, technology news website Re/code reported that North Korea may have been involved in the incident, and that the attack may have been in retaliation for “The Interview,” an upcoming Sony Pictures movie about a CIA attempt to assassinate that country’s leader, Kim Jong Un. The movie has been called “an act of war” by the Pyongyang government.

“The film is a comedy and features actors Seth Rogen and James Franco as celebrity journalists who score a rare interview with the North Korean leader, played by the actor Randall Park. In the film, the journalists are enlisted by the CIA to assassinate Kim,” re/code’s Arik Hesseldahl said. It is scheduled to be released in the US on December 25.
“Sony and outside security consultants are actively exploring the theory that the hack may have been carried out by third parties operating out of China on North Korea’s behalf. The sources stress that a link to North Korea hasn’t been confirmed, but has not been ruled out, either,” he added. Last week, some of the files were reportedly leaked on the Web via a threat through Reddit, but Hesseldahl said that their authenticity had not been independently confirmed.
On Monday, Forbes contributor Emma Woollacott reported that at least five new Sony movies, including the Brad Pitt film Fury and the not-yet-released remake of Annie, had been leaked through a popular torrent website by the Guardians of Peace. The video footage came from DVD screener copies of the movies produced to allow awards judges to see the movies ahead of release, and are described by Woollacott as “high-quality, but watermarked.”
Previous reports indicated that the hackers had obtained a number of sensitive documents listed in .zip files that were uploaded last week. The documents named in that file suggested it contained the entire contents of an employee server, including dozens of podcast mp3s as well as password files. Following the initial hacking, Sony would only confirm to members of the press that it had been “investigating an IT issue” but did not elaborate on the issue.
“While it’s definitely premature to be attributing the hack to any particular motive this early in the proceedings, it’s perhaps significant that the hackers haven’t chosen to leak The Interview along with the rest,” Woollacott said. “This could suit the North Korean government, as the last thing it wants is for people to see the movie.”
“But the attribution of the hack to North Korea does represent something of a silver lining for Sony,” she added. “It looks slightly less careless to fall vulnerable to a hack from a government rather than a group of individuals, for a start – and it also makes for great publicity for the movie.”
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