Sony Pictures Hack Leaks Millions of Sensitive Documents
Sony Pictures suffered a major cyber attack weeks ago and it appears hackers are following up leaking extremely sensitive data belonging to the company and their employee’s.
Hackers who hijacked Sony Pictures networks stole massive volumes of data and have begun leaking the data on torrent sites, trading the data through Sony’s own PlayStation network and private channels as well.
Security expert Brian Krebs, reported that hackers may have stolen tens of thousands of sensitive employee documents containing data of Social Security numbers, medical and salary information.
Not only did hackers steal over 25GB of internal data, it’s beginning to look as if hackers destroyed amass critical data on an unknown number of internal Sony Picture systems.
Even more embarrassing, Sony’s files are being shared on apart of their own PlayStation network servers, in addition to torrent sites across the web. Excel spreadsheets were found in the leak detailing the names, locations, employee IDs, network usernames, employee salary, and date of birth for more than 6,800 Sony employees.
Also housed inside the spreadsheet shared among the torrenters is an alleged list of the 17 top paid executives at Sony Pictures Entertainment. The alleged list outlines the CEO’s salary, Michael Lynton, and co-chairman Amy Pascal at a $3,000,000 paygrade, listing the lowest paid employee of the 17 at $1,000,000.
One researcher, Dan Tentler, analyzed the nodes helping distribute or seed the data, during analysis Tentler uncovered 75 Amazon EC2 (Amazon AWS) servers sharing the data. Tentler concluded the Amazon servers belonged to the FBI as part of a honeypot, to help prosecute downloaders.
Another researcher, Dave Maynor, also analyzed servers helping distribute the Sony Pictures hacked data. During analysis, Maynor claims some servers helping distribute the data contained “cryptographic guarantees of authenticity.” He claims some servers pushing the data had Sony verified SSL certificates. Maynor concluded hackers also have control over critical PlayStation Network infrastructure helping push the large amounts of data. “Basically the attackers have hit Sony so hard that their main front-end web servers for the PlayStation Network are the machines serving up the compromised data,” Maynor told Forbes in an email.
Other files Krebs found being traded online appeared to be a status report dating back to April 2014, which listed names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers and health savings account data for more than 700 Sony Entertainment employees. Yet other files suggest it was the product of an internal audit performed by the accounting firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers, which also includes screenshots of employee federal tax records and other financial records.
Just last week Sony Pictures Entertainment found themselves victim to a severe cyber attack, so severe it forced the Sony network offline flashing images reading “Hacked by #GOP” on every employee computer.
Hackers demanded Sony comply in paying a ransom or select files would be leaked at specific listed URL’s if the company did not comply. It appears hackers are in full force leaking critical data behind the Sony corporation.
It was said Sony employees were warned by network administrators to disconnect all WiFi enabled devices til the issue is fixed.
Such critical precautions would appear if the company faced such a serious cyber threat that files were being destroyed periodically throughout the network.
The Sony Picture hacking appears to be very well orchestrated from the Guardians of Peace hackers. During the time of the attack, Sony Pictures Entertainment was on the market for a Chief Information Security Officer to handle the network security. Whoever was behind the attack had insider data that the network was vulnerable at the precise moment. In one email interview, hackers claimed to have employees working on the inside helping them gain access to physical and digital infrastructure but retained details for the security of the employee.
The FBI has issued a “Flash Alert” regarding the attack and is helping Sony investigate the critical matter.
