Skip to footer

WikiLeaks creates online archive of hacked Sony Pictures documents

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange says the database includes more than 170,000 emails and 30,000 other documents from the studio and a subsidiary.

|
John Stillwell/AP
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange speak during a news conference inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in 2014. The site has put hundreds of thousands of emails and documents from last year's Sony hack into a searchable online archive.
  • By Mae Anderson Associated Press

| New York

Sony's hacking problems aren't over yet.

Whistleblower site WikiLeaks on Thursday put hundreds of thousands of emails and documents from last year's crippling cyberattack against Sony Pictures Entertainment into a searchable online archive. It's the latest blow for the entertainment and technology company struggling to get past the attack, which the company estimates caused millions in damage.

The website founded by Julian Assange said that its database includes more than 170,000 emails from Sony Pictures and a subsidiary, plus more than 30,000 other documents.

Sony Pictures blasted WikiLeaks for creating the archive, saying the website was helping the hackers disseminate stolen information.

"We vehemently disagree with WikiLeaks' assertion that this material belongs in the public domain," the company said in a statement.

But Assange said the documents should be available to the public. Although they had been online, it was in a compressed format that wasn't easily searchable.

"This archive shows the inner workings of an influential multinational corporation," Assange said. "It is newsworthy and at the center of a geo-political conflict. It belongs in the public domain. WikiLeaks will ensure it stays there."

The WikiLeaks site lets users find emails, documents, or an entire cache of files through searches using keywords, people who sent or received emails, and types of files. The site made a name for itself in 2010 when it began publishing diplomatic cables leaked by Chelsea Manning, formerly known as Bradley Manning.

Assange is currently battling a detention order in Sweden, where he is wanted by prosecutors in an investigation of alleged sex crimes. He has avoided being extradited to Sweden by taking shelter in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London since 2012.

Sony Pictures' troubles began last December after it suffered an extensive hacking attack and release of confidential emails ahead of its release of "The Interview," a comedy that centers around the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. A group calling itself Guardians of the Peace took credit for the attack, and US intelligence officials said the group was linked to North Korea, but no official link has been made.

The attack exposed tens of thousands of sensitive documents, including studio financial records, employment files, and emails between Sony executives. Some emails revealed exchanges between Oscar-winning producer Scott Rudin and Sony Pictures' co-chair Amy Pascal that contained a frank assessment of Angelina Jolie's talent and racially offensive jokes about President Obama's presumed taste in movies. The company announced in February that Ms. Pascal would transition to a job as the head of a new production venture at the studio.

Sony Pictures at first shelved "The Interview," but it was later opened in a limited release.

The studio's parent, Tokyo-based Sony Corp., launched an overhaul of its own security in 2011 after hackers broke into its PlayStation Network gaming system and stole data of 77 million users.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to WikiLeaks creates online archive of hacked Sony Pictures documents
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2015/0416/WikiLeaks-creates-online-archive-of-hacked-Sony-Pictures-documents
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe