Last week, a group of hackers calling themselves "Guardians of Peace," hacked into the system of Sony Pictures, forcing employees to work with old-fashioned pen and paper. It seems that, aside from sensitive information that was stolen and being used to blackmail the studio, unless they complied with the demands that were never made clear, the pirates also stole movies and released them online via peer-to-peer sharing networks.
Among the stolen movies is Brad Pitt's World War II flick, Fury, which was only released in theaters in the US on Oct. 17. Other titles include Annie, Mr. Turner, Still Alice, and To Write Love on her Arms.
To date, Fury has made approximately $81,907,000 at the box office so far, according to Box Office Mojo. However, it has also been downloaded by at least 1.2 million unique IP addresses since it was illegally released on Nov. 27.
Copies of the films, which were watermarked and intended to be sent to viewers for awards consideration purposes, were stolen during the Sony Studios attack on Nov. 24. Investigators are currently still looking into the motive of the attack including a possible North Korean connection that might have been prompted by the soon to be released Seth Rogan and James Franco film, The Interview, which is about two reporters hired to assassinate Kim Jong Un.
North Korea has been in a huff about the imminent release of the comedy for months. In June, the country's Foreign Ministry said in a letter to General Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General, that it was an "undisguised terrorism and a war action" they also hinted that there would be consequences and "merciless retaliation" if Sony did not halt the opening of the movie.
In light of the scope of the security breach, the FBI has gotten involved in the investigation of the attack as well, according to Sony.
"The theft of Sony Pictures Entertainment content is a criminal matter, and we are working closely with law enforcement to address it," a company representative said.
While Sony's offices are still recovering from the attack, they have hired forensics unit from FireEye's Mandiant to help with clean up and damage repair to the systems.
