WikiLeaks releases Sony attack documents and emails

Hundreds of thousands of emails and documents from a cyber-attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2014 have been now published by WikiLeaks.

The archive apparently includes Sony conversations with Downing Street and with Hollywood figures.

In November, Sony suffered a cyber-attack weeks before releasing The Interview, a movie criticized by North Korea.

Sony said it “strongly condemns” the WikiLeaks release.

“We vehemently disagree with WikiLeaks’ assertion that this material belongs in the public domain,” Sony said in a statement.

The WikiLeaks dump includes more than 170,000 emails and over 20,000 documents.

After November’s hack, an unknown organization published the documents online, but it was not in an easily-searchable form.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange justified the publication by saying the documents show the inner functioning of a multinational company and are “at the centre of a geo-political conflict”.

The attack came just weeks before Sony was set to release The Interview about a fictional American plot to kill North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

North Korea denied involvement in the attack but praised it as a “righteous deed”.

In December 2014, a group calling itself the “Guardians of Peace” threatened 9/11-type attacks on theaters showing the movie, spurring Sony to cancel the movie’s release.

Days later, amidst growing public pressure to show the movie, Sony bosses appeared to change their minds and said they would give it a limited Christmas Day release.

In January 2015, the US imposed new sanctions on North Korea in response to the attack. And, in April, President Barack Obama ordered the creation of a program that would allow the US government to sanction foreign hackers.