Sony Hackers Release 8th Instalment of Leaked Documents, Promise 'Christmas Gift'

Sony Hackers promised a "Christmas gift" as it indicated more leaks from Sony Pictures Entertainment. Meanwhile, it released the eighth instalment of the leaked Sony documents.

The "Guardians of Peace" or GOP, which the hackers call themselves, claimed that it would release more leaked documents soon. In a post which was later shared on at least two websites, GOP said that it would leak more materials if Sony did not accept its demands. Even though it did not clarify what its demands were, it said that the future leaks would be more "interesting," hinting more probable damages to the company's reputation. The "Christmas gift" is going to be "larger quantities of data." "And it will be more interesting," Recode quoted.

The post apparently gave an opportunity for SPE employees to request GOP not to disclose their private data. The employees were asked to send emails to GOP with their name and business title if they did not want their emails and privacy to be compromised. The recent leak by GOP hackers, which was earlier shared on Pastebin and Friendpaste only to be removed by both the websites, consisted of nearly 6GB data, which apparently belonged to Steve O'Dell, president of Sony Pictures Releasing International. The cyber-attack has gone stronger over the period of the last three weeks. F-Secure researcher Sean Sullivan earlier said that the purpose behind the Sony cyber-attack was extortion. Sullivan compared the release of private files with "shooting hostages." The hackers are doing it one after another depending on the fulfilment of their demands, he said. The hackers have leaked unreleased movies, embarrassing private emails and business plans of the company so far.

The GOP post also asked users to send emails to the email addresses it provided. The emails, titled as "Merry Christmas," should be about their wishes from GOP on Christmas. ABC News reported that it would be unlikely to catch the offenders or stop the leaks any time soon no matter who was responsible for it. The hackers earlier leaked an early draft of the screenplay from the upcoming James Bond movie "Spectre."

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@ibtimes.com.au