Sony Pictures Employees Receive Threatening E-mails from Alleged Hackers

It seems like troubled times for folks working at Sony Pictures is not going to come to an end anytime soon. The company that faced a massive hack which rendered most of its computers useless also faced release of its movies online. The attack was handled by a hacker group which calls itself Guardians of Peace or #GOP. It is now being reported that the employees of Sony Pictures are now getting threatening e-mails.

Sony has lost a lot of ground in this attack. Not only has there been the loss of business days, but also they are not yet sure of the scale of the theft due to the hack. Four of Sony’s upcoming movies were released online along with the recently released and exceptional Brad Pitt movie, Fury. The hackers also released several documents relating to the company’s financial records, employee details and data relating to several movies.

Sony has hired security firm FireEye Inc and its Mandiant forensics unit to investigate the hacking. FBI spokesman Joshua Campbell has said that the department is aware of the threatening e-mails received by the employees at Sony. It is not yet clear though that if the e-mails were actually sent by the hackers or if it is a work of some prankster who scored the e-mails of the employees through the leaked documents. In either case, this is now a serious issue as this is criminal intimidation. The case has fast escalating from thievery and blackmail to terrorising the production company and the people who work for it.

This leak can lead to pernicious effects on people who work for the company. If the hackers have access to personal information, identification and financial details of people who’ve worked for Sony, they can attempt identity theft and cause harm to individuals. This attack can be easily be called a terrorist attack and maybe we could start seeing more of these in the coming future. The need of the hour is to train a massive workforce dedicated to cyber security just like a standing army. Our economies and identities have shifted from physical to the digital world, so it’s absolutely important to have soldiers online to protect our interests.