Sony says that it is investigating allegations of a cyberattack this week as different hackers have stepped up to claim responsibility for the purported hack.
According to Bleeping Computer*, while claims of attacking Sony’s systems were initially made by an extortion group called RansomedVC, a different threat actor has touted themselves to be the attackers and refuted RansomedVC’s claims.
Thus far, over 3.14 GB of uncompressed data, allegedly belonging to Sony, has been dumped on hacker forums. Prior to this week’s allegations, Sony’s most prominent encounter with a cyber attack happened in 2014 when North Korean hackers breached Sony Pictures in an attempt to censure the screening of the film, The Interview.
Attribution of a cyberattack is often trivial to everyone except those who have committed the theft. Threat actors can often be sensitive to ownership and can be quick to demand the kudos amongst their communities and forums. But regardless of who was behind this latest data leak, the question that needs to be risen is how did it happen.
Unlikely to be connected in any way to the notorious 2014 data leak, this would appear to be less targeted but still vulnerable to a huge attack. Ransomware gangs have transitioned heavily into becoming extortion gangs over the past few years giving victims no comeback and with no remorse in what they achieve.
*ESET does not bear any responsibility for the accuracy of this information.
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