It seems Sony Pictures is under attack — and the attack comes with the banner ‘hacked by #GOP.’ Who is #GOP, and what have they got against Sony? It’s not clear yet, but it seems Michael Lynton may be a big part of it.
According to a Reddit poster (name withheld per request), who says he is also an ex-employee of Sony Pictures, a friend who still works there has informed him that every computer in the New York office, and, reportedly, every Sony Pictures office across the nation, bears this image:
The text (errors and odd capitalization intact) reads as below.
Hacked By #GOP
Warning:
We’ve already wasned you, and this is just a beggining.
We continue till our request be met.
We’ve obtained all your Internal data, Including your secrets and top secrets.
If you don’t obey us, we’ll release data shown below to the world.
Determine what will you do till November the 24th, 11:00 PM (GMT).
It’s followed by several zip files, that apparently contain the information the hackers believe Sony doesn’t want the world to see.
However, it isn’t just the Sony Pictures offices bearing the signs of attack. Dozens of Twitter feeds connected to movies are showing a similar image, sans text. Others lack the image, but all bear the legend ‘Hacked By #GOP.’
It’s clear that access has already been regained to some Twitter feeds, such as that of Soul Surfer. Though at 1:30pm Eastern it looked like the others, the post (below) had been deleted by 1:45pm. Accounts initially affected included Stomp The Yard, Columbia Classics, Sony Stock Footage, My Daily Clip, Beastly Movie, and dozens of others.
Who is #GOP and what exactly are they asking of Sony Pictures? It isn’t clear, but according to the information contained in the first image, if the company doesn’t figure it out and respond in some way by late this evening, the details of ‘hacked by #GOP’ may become very public after all.