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Hackers send mass email threatening Sony employees and their families

Hackers send mass email threatening Sony employees and their families

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Variety is reporting that Sony Pictures employees have received a mass threat, purporting to be from the same digital attackers that took down the company systems last week. Sony says it has alerted law enforcement to the threat. A separate warning went out advising employees to turn off mobile devices, although it is unclear whether the threat was accompanied by a new attack.

Since so much of the information from the initial hack has been made public on torrent sites, it's difficult to verify that this email came from the same group responsible for the earlier attack. Still, the email contains the same strange phrasing and echoes many of the themes present in earlier messages. The attackers identify themselves as a global group focused on the destruction of Sony Pictures, although they decline to name specific reasons why. The only demand is a cryptic one: "If you want to prevent us, make your company behave wisely."

Technical evidence indicates that the programs that took down Sony were compiled specifically for the attack a few days earlier on a computer coded to type in Korean, strongly implicating North Korea in the attack. The email is reproduced below in full:

I am the head of GOP who made you worry.
Removing Sony Pictures on earth is a very tiny work for our group which is a worldwide organization. And what we have done so far is only a small part of our further plan. It’s your false if you if you think this crisis will be over after some time. All hope will leave you and Sony Pictures will collapse. This situation is only due to Sony Pictures. Sony Pictures is responsible for whatever the result is. Sony Pictues clings to what is good to nobody from the beginning. It’s silly to expect in Sony Pictures to take off us. Sony Pictures makes only useless efforts. One beside you can be our member.
Many things beyond imagination will happen at many places of the world. Our agents find themselves act in necessary places. Please sign your name to object the false of the company at the email address below if you don’t want to suffer damage. If you don’t, not only you but your family will be in danger.
Nobody can prevent us, but the only way is to follow our demand. If you want to prevent us, make your company behave wisely.