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Sony Security

Sony Employees Receive Email Threat From Hackers: 'Your Family Will Be In Danger 184

MojoKid writes: Things are going from bad to worse when it comes to the recent Sony Pictures Entertainment breach. Not only has sensitive financial information been released — including the salaries of high-ranking Sony executives — but more damaging personal information including 47,000 Social Security numbers of employees and actors have been leaked to the internet. We're now learning some even more disturbing details, unfortunately. Guardians of Peace (GOP), the hackers claiming responsibility for infiltrating Sony's computer network, are now threatening to harm the families of Sony employees. GOP reportedly sent Sony employees an email, which just so happened to be riddled with spelling and grammatical errors, that read in part, "your family will be in danger."
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Sony Employees Receive Email Threat From Hackers: 'Your Family Will Be In Danger'

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  • That Word (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 06, 2014 @02:48PM (#48539165)

    Guardians of Peace (GOP) [...] are now threatening to harm the families of Sony employees.

    You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means.

    • Re:That Word (Score:4, Insightful)

      by pushing-robot ( 1037830 ) on Saturday December 06, 2014 @03:09PM (#48539255)

      They keep it from breaking out.

    • Re:That Word (Score:4, Informative)

      by myowntrueself ( 607117 ) on Saturday December 06, 2014 @03:55PM (#48539457)

      Guardians of Peace (GOP) [...] are now threatening to harm the families of Sony employees.

      You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means.

      In the context of Islam, as in 'Islam is a religion of peace', the word 'peace' means 'not struggling against the will of Allah'.

      So no, it probably doesn't mean what most people (native speakers of English) think it means.

      • Re:That Word (Score:4, Insightful)

        by dAzED1 ( 33635 ) on Saturday December 06, 2014 @05:47PM (#48539873) Journal
        Um, I don't if you're aware, but Islam didn't invent English. The word you're describing is "submission" or perhaps "conformity." "Peace" means, in English, what it means - Islam doesn't get to define that.
        • by bsolar ( 1176767 )
          But it gets to use an English term in misleading way, which is good to point out. An English speaker familiar with the proper meaning of "peace" would likely misunderstand.
          • Re:That Word (Score:5, Interesting)

            by dAzED1 ( 33635 ) on Saturday December 06, 2014 @07:56PM (#48540367) Journal
            the English speaker isn't misunderstanding, they're being intentionally misled. That is a very big difference. They are perfectly understanding the intended message.
            • by rvw ( 755107 )

              Um, I don't if you're aware, but Islam didn't invent English. The word you're describing is "submission" or perhaps "conformity." "Peace" means, in English, what it means - Islam doesn't get to define that.

              But it gets to use an English term in misleading way, which is good to point out. An English speaker familiar with the proper meaning of "peace" would likely misunderstand.

              the English speaker isn't misunderstanding, they're being intentionally misled. That is a very big difference. They are perfectly understanding the intended message.

              Is this an example of Orwellian language or Doublespeak [wikipedia.org] - saying the opposite of what you mean, to confuse your audience? If so, once you know it, you know the weak spot in their reasoning.

      • by Anonymous Coward

        Guardians of Peace (GOP) [...] are now threatening to harm the families of Sony employees.

        You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means.

        In the context of Islam, as in 'Islam is a religion of peace', the word 'peace' means 'not struggling against the will of Allah'.

        So no, it probably doesn't mean what most people (native speakers of English) think it means.

        hmmm what is the will of Allah?

        Kill all that don't serve Allah
        So fight them until there is no more infidels and all submit to the religion of Allah alone. Surah 8:39
        O Prophet, urge the faithful to fight. If there are twenty among you with determination they will vanquish two hundred; if there are a hundred then they will slaughter a thousand unbelievers, for the infidels are a people devoid of understanding. Surah 8:65
        Fight and kill the disbelievers wherever you find them, take them captive, harass them, lie in wait and ambush them using every stratagem of war. Surah 9:5
        Kill All Dogs and Pigs
        Angels do not enter a house witch has either a dog or a picture in it. Hadith 4:539
        Allah declares that all dogs must die, they are despised in my sight as swine are Hadith 4:540
        Sex slaves are allowed
        Also women already married, except those whom your right hands possess.[right hand = sex slaves] Thus has Allah ordained for you. All others are lawful, provided you seek them from your property, desiring chastity, not fornication. So with those among them whom you have enjoyed, give them their required due, but if you agree mutually after the requirement (has been determined), there is no sin on you. Surely, Allah is Ever All-Knowing, All-Wise. Surah 4:24 ( http://www.wikiislam.net/wiki/... [wikiislam.net] ) According to Qur'an 23:6, Qur'an 33:50, Qur'an 33:52, and Qur'an 70:30 a Muslim man is considered "chaste" so long as he only has sex with his wives (of whom he may have up to four) and his right-hand possessions (female captives/slaves). An unmarried Muslim man who has sex with his slave girl is still considered to be "chaste" by Islamic standards

      • This is where modern etiquette seems to become so tricky. So when somebody uses that phrase I should correct them and say "Don't you mean Islam is a religion of slaves?".

      • I believe "submission" is a pretty accurate synonym here to "peace". They submit themselves to Allah, thus achieving "peace".
        To me, personally, that's kind of the same sense of peace that slaves have though, via abdicating (or being denied) their free will. And in most of the islamic cultures, becoming an apostate has extremely serious consequences, so "slave" is not, IMO, a particularly inflammatory exaggeration. Way too many rules and restrictions.
  • by Anonymous Coward
    What is their motivation against Sony Pictures? Those "hackers" seem like monsters who just want to see Sony burn. What a bunch of soulless dickheads.
    • Re:Agenda? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by maugle ( 1369813 ) on Saturday December 06, 2014 @03:01PM (#48539225)
      Wanting to see Sony burn is a perfectly legitimate goal, but threatening the safety of average employees and their families is several steps over the line.
      • Re:Agenda? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by future assassin ( 639396 ) on Saturday December 06, 2014 @03:43PM (#48539401)

        Are those emails legit or fake? Well what better way to reverse this from a super embarrassment for Sony and corporate world to "them hackers are gonna kill us" and make the hackers look even worse and dangerous. Next we'll see the words Anti Corporate Terrorists used.

        >GOP reportedly sent Sony employees an email, which just so happened to be riddled with spelling and grammatical errors, that read in part, "your family will be in danger."

        Yah, those bad grammar homicidal hackers.

        • Re:Agenda? (Score:5, Insightful)

          by fhage ( 596871 ) on Saturday December 06, 2014 @07:12PM (#48540205)

          Are those emails legit or fake? Well what better way to reverse this from a super embarrassment for Sony and corporate world to "them hackers are gonna kill us" and make the hackers look even worse and dangerous. Next we'll see the words Anti Corporate Terrorists used.

          Those are false flag emails, designed to elicit outrage in the real attackers so they might identify themselves.

          Remember, almost everything we hear about the hackers comes via Sony, filtered through the media. It's all theater at this point. Pretty good stuff too. Enjoy.

          • Re:Agenda? (Score:5, Insightful)

            by CanEHdian ( 1098955 ) on Sunday December 07, 2014 @10:45AM (#48542369)

            Sony hired FireEye (where In-Q-Tel is a major investor) which since Dec 2013 owns Mandiant. The latter and it's operations features prominently in the HBGary emails from a couple of years ago. I wouldn't put it past any of them to carry out a false flag operation, at the expense of the Sony employees (compare to the "hit me, hit me hard" to lamely cover up letting a prisoner escape) to try and draw out the GOP.

            GOP is also doing nobody a favour, if they did, by releasing a couple of pre-release movies. That makes Sony the legitimate victim. Releasing documents, on the other hand, that show dirty backstabbing, expose lies, and otherwise shed some light at the secretive goings-on of a major Copyright MAFIAA member makes Sony the perp.

            Don't forget, the keyword of the 2010s is Victimship. The art of making yourself look like the victim. It's not really new, as burglars that were caught in the act and became good acquintances with the homeowner's baseball bat always did this.

      • If I had modpoints, id mod you up seriously on that one. japanese workers dont have the choice of "following orders". its that or their job/face/life/family. unless you understand japanese culture to some extent, it is likely that this will just go over your head. screwing up as a worker, is intolerable. as a manager, it is your fault if a subordinant screws up, and you take the rap for it, so you make bloody sure that the subordinant s dont screw up, by any means, and if it still happens, you loose face, a
      • Re:Agenda? (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Maxo-Texas ( 864189 ) on Saturday December 06, 2014 @03:55PM (#48539449)

        Anyone can send an email. I'm not sure how they know for certain gop sent the email and not some random 13 year old with bad english skills.

        It would certainly be a great way to discredit gop too. Just have someone send an over the line email claiming to be gop. The fbi, a private contractor, etc.

      • Welcome to the world of terrorism where attacking innocent civilians in order to influence the actions of others (usually for political causes) is the key to victory.

        Yeah, that's right, I went ahead and said it. I'll also save the idiots the trouble and post one man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter and when you don't have to size and money to play fair, not playing fair becomes the fairest option.

        There we go. Got it all out of the way.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by hey! ( 33014 )

        True, law enforcement has to take this seriously, but if I received such a threat I wouldn't worry too much about it. It's basic trollish behavior. Hey look at ME! Pay attention to MEEE!

        These guys aren't terrorists, or even violent criminals. They aren't even hacktivists. They're script kiddies who want to see their name -- or at least their pseudonym -- in the media.

        They're pathetic, but they'll get their fifteen minutes of pseudo-fame because of the almost equally pathetic obsession the media has with the

        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          by Cederic ( 9623 )

          They're script kiddies

          No. Not by any definition of that term I've ever seen used.

          You don't know who they are, or what they're prepared to do. We don't even know if the emails are from the same group that perpetrated the data breach.

          That group though need to be taken seriously. They're not script kiddies, not even close.

          • by hey! ( 33014 )

            They're not script kiddies, not even close.

            So some people *say*, but I haven't seen any information that points to exotic skills. I'm not saying Destover itself doesn't contain some sophisticated techniques, but what it *does* is crude, drama queen stuff.

    • by aliquis ( 678370 )

      Wasn't the idea that Sony would release some Movie about the leadership or whatever in North Korea?

      And these "Peace" guardians likely want to preserve the leadership of NK.

    • Sony produced a picture "The Interview" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt27... [imdb.com] where two tmz-like "journalists" score an interview with fan Kim Jong-un, but the CIA wants them to asassinate him instead. DPRK is supposedly way pissed, asked Sony to dump the picture, sony says hell no, and here we are.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    I'm really disappointed that this sensationalist crap is considered news. I would completely ignore these, as with most anonymous clowns who are trying to tie together the feeble threads of corporate responsibility to physical violence. It doesn't happen and there is no credible danger. Quit giving these nutjobs a platform.

  • I realize that Sony has done some extremely dickish things, And they should have learned, as a company, about the importance of security after the PSN debacle. But even so, this is asinine behavior on the part of whoever is making these threats.
    • Well, North Korea is known to display asinine behavior. Such as abducting Japanese and S. korean citizens and forcing them to work in N. Korea. And blowing up S. Korean airliners with bombs.

      Lesson for Sony and anyone else: if a nation- state threatens you personally by name, take it seriously. Even if it's a poor backward nation like N. Korea. It's still a nation state with its own armed forces and intelligence agents.

    • You can't know its asisnine until you know what their objective is. If their objective is to get the FBI to kick in the door of everyone who Bittorrented those files or otherwise overreact, then making those threats wasn't asinine at all.
    • by rtb61 ( 674572 )

      Most likely behaviour here from the description is they are scattering information across to internet to script kiddies in order to create a flurry of activity which they can use to obscure the trail back to them for past and future actions.

  • by RichMan ( 8097 ) on Saturday December 06, 2014 @03:03PM (#48539231)

    So now we get to see how powerful the FBI and Japanese equivalent are at actually tracking down cyber criminals.

    • It may take a while - that's a lot of basement-dwellers to sift through...

    • by ArcadeMan ( 2766669 ) on Saturday December 06, 2014 @03:29PM (#48539341)

      If Anime is any indication, the Japanese equivalent of the FBI should be at least three or four decades ahead in terms of technology... and have much sexier female agents as well as powerful mechas that almost act like household pets but with cute voices.

    • So now we get to see how powerful the FBI and Japanese equivalent are at actually tracking down cyber criminals.

      The group pretty much already identified itself. There's no real investigation needed to figure it out.

    • Heh, nobody can stand against the mighty #GOP... except #TJR The Justice Riders! [amazon.ca] (Where "a pro-Union posse of diverse multinationals" is particulary apt.)
  • Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Saturday December 06, 2014 @03:21PM (#48539309)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • by Ken_g6 ( 775014 )

      The problem is that the SSN wasn't designed to be an identification number. Some cards even say "Not for identification." Example [elvispresleymusic.com.au]

    • Why have the number at all? What's wrong with when you need to be identified to provide identification documents of value?

      In Australia you have a points system. You need to generate a certain number of points to be identified like when you apply for a bank loan or something similar. Government issued photo IDs like drivers license or passport are worth the highest number of points, and two of these documents are usually sufficient. Lesser things like bank statements with mailing address, IDs without a photo

      • Why have the number at all? What's wrong with when you need to be identified to provide identification documents of value?

        Without the number, who, exactly, are you being identified as? You can't uniquely ID by name--which of the 42 "John Smith"s in your city are you? In order to be identified, you need some representation of identity that is uniquely yours, and no one else's. The easiest way to do that is to give you a unique ID number.

        • My point is that you're trying to simply the complete identity into one document that can ultimately be easily forged.

          What do you want to know about me?

          My name and age? My passport and drivers licence show that.
          My residential address? My drivers licence and council statements show that.
          That I'm a valid owner of a property in that council? Any photo ID such as University ID card + council statement shows that.
          My medicare status? That's a separate card and then any photo ID will verify that further.

          Why distil

  • by koan ( 80826 )

    Hackers using Google translate?

    It's Sony's fault, they chose to store things the way they did in this day and age, fuck em.

  • by SuricouRaven ( 1897204 ) on Saturday December 06, 2014 @06:23PM (#48539993)

    GoP are good. They have to be. The level of pwnage achieved is simply far beyond anything script kiddies could pull of. Not just the scale of the breach in total data, but in variety. Email, employee records, media from production - data from several divisions, and they even leaked it out through computers that host Playstation infrastructure, a completly different part of the organisation. Whoever GoP are, they have a very high level of skill.

    This group then sends some idiotic threats, badly written at that, to low-level employees? I believe I detect the faint smell of fish. It just seems out of character.

    I wouldn't be surprised if someone at Sony were responsible for sending this email as a false-flag operation. This would achieve two things they must be much desiring of right now. First, it casts GoP in a bad light - makes sure they are seen by the rest of the world as violent thugs and criminals, rather than being venerated as grassroots hackers who defeated a loathed mega-corporation. Secondly, a threat of physical harm brings a lot more attention from law enforcement - the FBI will devote more resources to aiding in the investigation, as will the corresponding law enforcement agencies in other countries.

    • I wouldn't be surprised if someone at Sony were responsible for sending this email as a false-flag operation.

      False-flag operation or not, that's a crime. If someone within Sony (or hired by Sony--e.g. their cybersecurity contractor) sent such an e-mail, that person is doing the equivalent of "screaming 'fire' in a crowded theater, when there is no fire". Not protected by free-speech and that person should be criminally charged with a felony.

      • Then either they don't expect to get caught, or someone has been assigned as 'designated scapegoat.' It might be just one person, acting alone and in desperation - and even if it isn't, it can be made to look that way.

      • by Anonymous Coward
        Are you suggesting someone at Sony would even consider breaking the law? I find that very hard to believe.....
    • GoP are good. They have to be. The level of pwnage achieved is simply far beyond anything script kiddies could pull of. Not just the scale of the breach in total data, but in variety. Email, employee records, media from production - data from several divisions, and they even leaked it out through computers that host Playstation infrastructure, a completly different part of the organisation. Whoever GoP are, they have a very high level of skill.

      This group then sends some idiotic threats, badly written at that, to low-level employees? I believe I detect the faint smell of fish. It just seems out of character.

      I wouldn't be surprised if someone at Sony were responsible for sending this email as a false-flag operation. This would achieve two things they must be much desiring of right now. First, it casts GoP in a bad light - makes sure they are seen by the rest of the world as violent thugs and criminals, rather than being venerated as grassroots hackers who defeated a loathed mega-corporation. Secondly, a threat of physical harm brings a lot more attention from law enforcement - the FBI will devote more resources to aiding in the investigation, as will the corresponding law enforcement agencies in other countries.

      I don't know whether GoP are good or bad, but the level of pwnage here is nothing special, Sony was a very very soft target it seems and it could easily be anyone from script kiddies to an organized group with how bad the security (or complete lack of it) was.

    • by sudon't ( 580652 )

      Whoever wrote it, it a pretty convincing imitation of bad English. I'm not sure an English speaker could come up with that. People, when using a foreign language, tend to use certain words and phrases in imitation of their own native syntax and idioms. I think we all know that hacking or coding skills do not automatically equal grammar skills, let alone foreign language skills. But is it Russians, Koreans, Chinese...?

      • Anyone with slightly more than passing experience using a translation tool could bounce between English and Korean to get appropriately flavored Engrish.

        I'm leaning towards false flag on the emails. However if this is a Korean attack on Sony, then the goal is to utterly destroy their business. Flinging their data to the four winds as has clearly been done is going to cause a lot of knock-on effects that will result in Sony suffering a huge amount of pain over the coming months and possibly years.

        • The SPE_01 dump has some interesting things. Contact details for lots of network executives, both within Sony Pictures and in those companies they had contact with. It also shows that, like every business, people were in the habbit of keeping a handy list of passwords for every service someone might need to log in to. There are a few interesting revlations (One of the vice presidents is working in the US on a green card, Family Feud is doing dismally in the ratings, the studio practically gave away The Dr O

  • Am I alone in seeing the headline about threats from GOP, and thinking that the Tea Party is getting damn aggressive these days?
  • Sony staff - or at least the ones I've met - are required to use Sony equipment left, right and centre. So their family members have been at risk of harm from the use of Sony equipment for years in the past, and will remain at risk for years in the future. Until several years after the final demise of Sony Corporation.
  • Could we put it past Sony to fake such a letter so as to, say, prompt some additional action on the part of law enforcement or even to try and preempt war on someone or something?

    (Not saying this is the case, merely speculating at the possibility of the injured party disseminating, for lack of a better word - "propaganda" - to try and garner sympathy from regular people because OH NO H4CK3R5 R BAAAAAAAAAD).

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