Sony Pictures Attack Stolen File Downloaders with DDoS Attacks
Sony Pictures Entertainment has raged war against hackers and downloaders themselves, investigating and initiating their own hack attacks against those downloading their sensitive leaks.
Taking matter into their own hands, Sony Pictures has begun attempting to disrupt downloaders, launching cyber attacks against those downloading their stolen files found in the latest leak of documents.
According to Recode, Sony Pictures is harnessing the power of hundreds of computers located in Asia to launch distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, such counter attacks in hopes of overloading the downloaders internet connections turning them offline.
According to insiders at Sony, the studio is using Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud computing platform from Amazon which operates out of data centers in Tokyo and Singapore, to launch their cyber attacks. Such tactics have been commonly employed by media companies in the past with hopes of stopping digital media piracy.
Sony has begun taking such severe counter measures due the studio taking one of the most brutal data breaches of all time. A hacking team calling themselves Guardians of Peace (GOP) took Sony Pictures network ransom, stealing nearly 100 terabytes of data. Included in those stolen files is financial information, company budgets, payroll data, emails, films, healthcare plans, Social Security numbers among millions of other sensitive documents which hackers have begun leaking to the public in portions.
Files leaked by hackers have yet to be verified by Sony Pictures, who also has declined to comment on nearly all stories regarding the attack.
The fifth illicit leak of files was made available this week, individuals who attempted to download the torrent were met with phony seeds, or uploaders, which was Sony collecting the IP address information belonging to the downloaders, one source claimed. Sony from there forward harvested addresses throughout the day launching denial of service attacks against those downloading the stolen information.
During Sony’s attacks, downloaders connections slowed to a crawl, buying Sony time before individuals could complete and access their files. The state of uploaders connections was not discussed by the insiders.
The latest document leak this Wednesday, had a different type of file name fooling Sony’s efforts in taking downloaders offline, Recode reported.
North Korea, once in the limelight for the attack, has since been investigated and deemed not the source of the attack by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Hackers demanded Sony Pictures pull the plug on their latest film, The Interview, a comedy film produced by the studio where the CIA plans to assassinate North Korea leader, Kim Jong-Un. North Korea denied their involvement in the hacking yet praised hackers for their “righteous deed.”
Sony’s latest technique towards attacking their downloaders is tactic employed in the early days of file sharing, when it worked with one anti-piracy firm named MediaDefender. The firm crawled file-sharing and torrent networks spreading fake files with popular pre-release movie titles, enticing users to spend countless hours downloading the phony files.
The goal was to anger downloaders conditioning them to turn towards legitimate copies of movies. Such tactics were short lived as torrent networks slowly enhanced, becoming sophisticated over the years allowing users to spot phony files.
The Sony Hack continues to develop and hackers continue to threaten Sony. Sony Pictures Entertainment has yet to comment on the attack, what may have been stolen or how hard their networks were attacked. Employee’s working for the company have been told to disable WiFi of wireless devices til the incident if properly dealt with.
The legality of Sony’s actions has been on the backburner, but the United States FBI is helping Sony investigate massive cyber attack.