Sony hackers threaten company and movie-goers

Guardians of Peace, the hacker group that hit Sony Pictures Entertainment, has released another batch of data labeled simply with “Michael Lynton,” the name of the company’s CEO.

Links to the file have been included in the latest message posted by the group on Pastebin, and it apparently represents a piece of the “Christmas gift” announced a few days ago.

The leak has been accompanied by a threatening message that implies that the premiere and other screenings of the Seth Rogen movie “The Interview” might turn into a bloodbath. “Remember the 11th of September 2001,” they warned, and added: “We recommend you to keep yourself distant from the places at that time.”

The latest leaked data has yet to be analyzed, and the offered links and torrents to the file were quickly removed, but it seems likely that it contains the CEO’s email spool.

The company has reacted to the threats by cancelling the New York premiere of the comedy about the assassination of North Korea’s president, the BBC reports. Subsequent scheduled screenings are brought into question, as the two main stars of the film – Seth Rogen and James Franco – have pulled out of all planned media appearances.

In the meantime, two former SPE employees have filed a class-action lawsuit against the company, claiming the company should have known they will be targeted by hackers due to previous attacks levelled against Sony’s PlayStation Network, that they have not invested in proper security mechanisms even though they knew the danger, and that their stolen data has already been used by criminals who tried to steal their identities.