The hackers that attacked Sony Pictures Entertainment threatened to unleash violence at movie theaters that will be showing the movie "The Interview," invoking the 9/11 attacks.
"Soon all the world will see what an awful movie Sony Pictures Entertainment has made," wrote the hackers claiming to be behind the attacks on Sony, named the Guardians of Peace, on file-sharing sites.
"The world will be full of fear. Remember the 11th of September 2001," the message added, bringing back chilling memories of the terrorist attacks.
The newly issued threats, which aimed to disrupt the release of the movie by warning audiences of possible attacks, led to movie co-stars James Franco and Seth Rogen to cancel planned promotion appearances for the movie.
"The Interview" is a comedy film, to be released on Dec. 25, which follows two journalists, played by Franco and Rogen, as they head off to North Korea to interview Kim Jong Un, the communist nation's leader. However, the CIA has tapped the pair to assassinate the North Korean leader.
However, according to an official from the Department of Homeland Security, there is no intelligence pointing to a planned attack on U.S. movie theaters.
In addition to the threats, the hackers also released a new data dump that included thousands of emails from Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton's own inbox. Past such data dumps of email inboxes included those of Amy Pascal, Sony Pictures studio head, Leah Weil, Sony Pictures General Counsel, and Steve Mosko, Sony Pictures Television President.
Lynton and Pascal, who is currently Sony Pictures co-chairman, have been focusing on rekindling the trust of the company's employees, both former and current. Sensitive information on the employees, including their Social Security numbers, health records and salaries are among the data that the hackers have extracted from Sony Pictures and have been made public.
"I am incredibly sorry that you had to go through this," said Lynton to employees during a staff meeting. Lynton condemned the attack of the hackers, which affected not just the business but also the staff of Sony Pictures.
While Sony Pictures' executives remain apologetic to the employees affected by the attacks, two former employees have already filed a lawsuit against Sony Pictures for not safeguarding their personal data. According to the former employees, the company knew that it did not have sufficient protection for its data, already suffering breaches two times before the attack by the Guardians of Peace.
The hackers even continue to target the company's employees, demanding more data from the workers in exchange for exclusion from future leaked information.
