Sony Confirms They Are Investigating Potential Ransomware Attack

Ransomware attacks are nothing too surprising these days. Several groups prey on companies. You’ll find that these groups will hack into a company’s system and steal internal files. From there, the group usually will hold these files hostage and demand money before destroying the files. Some companies will go along and eat the costs, while others will refuse. This refusal typically leads to the files being shared online or sold to the highest bidder. Some high-profile companies can be targeted as well, and their security systems attempt to hold off attackers, but skilled groups can still manage to get through. That’s exactly what might have happened recently with Sony.

We reported just yesterday that a ransomware group had managed to break through Sony’s security systems. At least, that’s the claim right now, as there is some proof released to indicate that they have some files from Sony. That doesn’t mean there’s not plenty of other content just being held back for now. But they claim that all the systems were hacked, which could be a big hit against Sony. That might also mean there’s potential customer details could be compromised. However, we have yet to hear whether this is the case. 

As mentioned, ransomware groups typically force a company to pay them off. However, a statement that was previously released online from the group noted that Sony is not one to pay off groups. This means the content is up for purchase; otherwise, on September 28, 2023, we might see the content leaked online. Since this announcement came out, it looks like Sony has started an investigation to see just how legitimate these claims the ransomware group is making.

According to a report from IGN, Sony has stated that they are launching an investigation after the claims that their system was breached. We’re left waiting to see just what comes from these claims and investigations. Of course, there are plenty of callbacks to the big breach that Sony had to deal with back in 2011. This hack even forced the PlayStation Network to close down for several weeks as they worked through the security issues. Hopefully, this won’t be the case for Sony again in 2023, but we’ll have to wait and see just where this ends up going.