Just when you thought Sony Pictures' woes with the huge security breach that occurred in November was over, WikiLeaks swoops in and takes a shot at the Hollywood studio.
Following an initial release of more than 30,000 private business documents made by WikiLeaks in April, the whistleblower announces over Twitter that it has uploaded into its servers a total of 276,394 private files containing sensitive information such as emails and financial data.
RELEASE: Sony Files Part 2 -- 276,394 more docs Search: https://t.co/AUlXA2k09q Browse: https://t.co/WPjG2Avmss pic.twitter.com/zz0JHDOTqR
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) June 18, 2015
The latest leaks consist of a variety of documents, spanning contact lists, expense reports, event planning and travel calendars. On Twitter, WikiLeaks also points to a collection of files that provide evidence of "legal entanglements" where Sony Pictures battles an investigation for bribery.
Sony Pictures has yet to comment on the latest leaks, but any representative for the embattled studio is sure to be grim-faced when they show up to make a statement to the press. In April, Sony Pictures said WikiLeaks was aiding cyber criminals in the perpetrations of crimes against the security and privacy of the firm's 6,000 employees.
"The cyberattack on Sony Pictures was a malicious criminal act, and we strongly condemn the indexing of stolen employee and other private and privileged information on WikiLeaks," a spokesperson told Variety at the time. "The attackers used the dissemination of stolen information to try to harm [Sony Pictures] and its employees, and now WikiLeaks regrettably is assisting them in that effort."
The statement was also in response to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's assertion that since Sony Pictures is a massive corporation with links to several government organizations, the information stolen during the November hack and posted on the Internet by a group of hackers calling themselves Guardians of Peace "belongs to the public domain."
"This archive shows the inner workings of an influential multinational corporation," Assange, who is currently staying at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to avoid extradition, said. "It is newsworthy and at the center of a geo-political conflict."
Although private security experts have question the veracity of the government's conclusion, investigators pointed their fingers at North Korea as the source of the hack that crippled Sony Pictures' servers and exposed thousands of private and embarrassing documents leading to the resignation of then Chairperson Amy Pascal.
It is believed that the secretive Pyongyang regime was retaliating at the film studio over the release of its comedy film "The Interview," which portrayed the assassination of North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong Un. The hackers demanded Sony Pictures to halt the release of the film in theaters, threatening to blow up the areas on the release date, but the film was eventually made available online through on-demand services.
