Four movies from Sony Pictures Entertainment, including unreleased films "Annie," "Mr. Turner," and "Still Alice," were leaked online and are now available for download through various file-sharing sites. This follows the cyber-attack on the company's network last week.
The security breach and the emergence of the pirated copies of the movies online has forced the company to temporarily shut down its film and TV arm until the issue is resolved. Sony is currently working with law enforcement officials to investigate the hacking incident, but as of now, the culprit is still at large.
"The theft of Sony Pictures Entertainment content is a criminal matter, and we are working closely with law enforcement to address it," a Sony spokeswoman told Variety.
North Korea's involvement
According to reports, the investigators are leaning its investigations toward hackers who are possibly working with North Koreans. The attack is reportedly North Korea's response to the sour taste left by Sony's forthcoming film "The Interview," a feature film starring Seth Rogen and James Franco who play TV journalists caught up in a plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.
The three generations of the Kim dynasty ruled North Korea and its constituents look up to their leaders highly. Any insult or satire is regarded as insurgency and can result to imprisonment or even death.
A hacking group that calls itself #GOP or Guardians of Peace admitted to be responsible for the attack and claimed that it has acquired Sony Pictures' internal data, including its "secrets." The group said that it will disclose these unspecified secrets to the public if its demands are not met.
Other hacking incidents
This is not the first time that Sony suffered attacks from hackers. Earlier this month, a hacker group called DerpTrolling revealed thousands of alleged user logins from PlayStation Network, 2K Games, and Windows Live. However, reports claim that the logins were fake.
In August, Sony's PlayStation Network also temporarily shut down due to overwhelming traffic resulting from a security breach.
