A hacker collective claims to have infiltrated Sony’s systems and now plans to sell the stolen data to the highest bidder.
Sony is yet to officially acknowledge the hack, but has said it is “investigating” the situation.
Who hacked Sony?
Hacker group Ransomed.vc claims to have stolen Sony data. Cyber Security Connect first reported the hack on September 25, alongside a statement posted by the collective.
“We have successfully compromissed all of sony systems. We wont ransom them! we will sell the data. due to sony not wanting to pay. DATA IS FOR SALE,” the statement read. The spelling within is their own.
What do the hackers want?
Ransomed.vc’s statement suggests Sony may have refused the group’s ransom demands. It has claims the data will be leaked publicly on September 28 if no buyer is found.
BleepingComputer reports the hacker group is asking for $2.5 million (£1.97m) for the data.
Who are Ransomed.vc?
According to Flashpoint, Ramsomed.vc emerged in August 2023 and has so far demanded sums between 50,000 and 200,000 Euro from its victims. The site suggests the threats involve proof of companies’ breaking of GDPR rules, which could lead to fines even greater than the ransom demands.
VGC writes that most of the members of Ransomed.vc operate out of Russia and Ukraine.
What data has been compromised?
While the group claims to have compromised “all of” Sony’s systems, the proof of the hack is limited and not quite consistent with the claims.
Cyber Security Connect says as part of the proof of the hack, the file system tree of the extracted data was posted, and it appears to consist of fewer than 6,000 files. Many of them are reportedly written in Japanese.
Ransomed.vc also posted images of a Sony internal login screen and a Powerpoint presentation. At this point, it is unclear how much data may have been compromised, but BleepingComputer suggests it amounts to 260GB in total.
What is Sony doing about the hack?
“We are currently investigating the situation, and we have no further comment at this time,” is the only statement Sony has released to date, to IGN.
Is my Sony user data safe?
At present, it is too early to tell whether private-user data is part of the claimed data hack. The statement released by the hacker group suggests it may well include such data, but the veracity of that statement remains untested.
Has Sony been hacked before?
The most infamous Sony hack took place in 2014. Sony Pictures was reportedly compromised by a group of North Korean hackers, in retaliation for the release of film The Interview.
Information leaked included Sony’s future film plans, as well as personal information about company employees. This leak amounted to 100 terabytes of data.
The PlayStation Network was also hacked in 2011, resulting in 77 million user accounts being compromised. Sony took the network down, and PSN was offline for a total of 23 days.
The Standard has approached Sony for comment.
