Sony Pictures hack 2014 (Methodology)

The group who claimed to be behind the Sony Pictures hack in 2014 called themselves the guardian of peace (GOP). Researchers indicate that (GOP) is a part of another group called the ‘Lazarus Group'. Which appears to be responsible for developing 45 families of malware that has been used in conducting attacks on the US and South Korea since 2009 see (figure 1)(Zetter, 2016). However, in this attack, ‘Sony Pictures Internment,’ WIPALL malware variants were used to launch the attack as it substituted McAffee’s real-time scanner with another file (Micro, 2020), which had led to the breach that happened, as the hackers claimed to have obtained 100 terabyte of data, including employee usernames, password, home addresses, social security numbers, and financial document. Moreover, some of Sony’s upcoming movies were leaked to the internet (AFP, 2014). This has cost Sony a million of dollars, up to 8M dollars as a settlement for its employee (BBC, 2015), and 35 million dollars as the whole year losses (Hornyak, 2015).

Figure 1. (Author's work)

References:

AFP, 2014. FBI Probing Sony Hack, As Data Leaks Emerge | Securityweek.Com. [online] Securityweek.com. Available at: <https://www.securityweek.com/fbi-probing-sony-hack-data-leaks-emerge> [Accessed 24 November 2020].

BBC, 2015. Sony pays up to $8m over employees' hacked data. [online] Available at: <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34589710> [Accessed 24 November 2020].

 Hornyak, T., 2015. 2014 Cyberattack To Cost Sony $35M In IT Repairs. [online] Computerworld. Available at: <https://www.computerworld.com/article/2879480/2014-cyberattack-to-cost-sony-35m-in-it-repairs.html> [Accessed 24 November 2020].

Micro, T., 2020. WIPALL Malware Leads to #GOP Warning in Sony Hack. [Blog] Trend Micro, Available at <https://blog.trendmicro.com/trendlabs-security-intelligence/wipall-malware-leads-to-gop-warning-in-sony-hack/?_ga=2.85987864.1634924748.1606245189-607475687.1606245189> [Accessed 24 Novmber 2020].

 Zetter, K., 2016. The Sony Hackers Were Causing Mayhem Years Before They Hit The Company. [online] Wired. Available at: <https://www.wired.com/2016/02/sony-hackers-causing-mayhem-years-hit-company/> [Accessed 24 November 2020].