Hacktivists blamed for attacks on Sony

Sony Pictures Entertainment has refused to comment on the leak of highly sensitive data following a hacking attack, which revealed a female executive reportedly makes almost $1m (€800,000) less than her male counterpart each year.

The leaked data, blamed initially on North Korea, also included the names and social security numbers of Sony employees, Sony’s payroll data and detailed employee performance reviews.

Some cybersecurity experts say it is unlikely North Korea was behind the cyberattack that crippled Sony Pictures computers and possibly leaked unreleased movies online.

Speculation has been rampant that the hardline communist state sponsored last week’s hack in anger over the new Sony movie The Interview, in which Seth Rogen and James Franco play television journalists assigned by the CIA to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

“State-sponsored attackers don’t create cool names for themselves like ‘Guardians of Peace’ and promote their activity to the public,” said cybersecurity analyst Lucas Zaichkowsky.

He said the details he has seen point instead to hacktivists, who break into computers to make a political point, often one involving the free exchange of information on the internet. Hacktivists have targeted Sony in the past.

The leaked documents, which have not been verified by Sony, reveal Hannah Minghella, who serves as co-president of production at Sony’s Columbia Pictures division, makes $800,000 (€650,000) less per year than her male counterpart, Columbia Pictures co-president of production Michael De Luca.

The Interview comes out on Christmas. Over the summer, North Korea warned the release of the comedy would be an “act of war that we will never tolerate.” It said the US will face “merciless” retaliation.

FBI spokesman Joshua Campbell would not comment on whether North Korea or another country was behind the attack. The FBI is investigating.

It would be unusual if North Korea was behind the breach, said Darren Hayes, director of cybersecurity at Pace University’s computer science school. “However, there are numerous hackers for hire” in some of the shadowy corners of the internet, he said.

“If Kim Jong Un has developed his own rank-and-file cyberattack unit, with sophisticated capabilities, then we should be very concerned.”

Sony Pictures hasn’t said how the hackers breached its system. Such attacks often start with phishing attempts, a compromised website or a malicious insider, said cyber -security researcher Craig Young at Tripwire, a security company that works with businesses like Visa and Mastercard.