UPDATED, Wednesday 1:00 p.m. PT: The hacking has spread to New York-based auditing firm Deloitte. A document purports to show sensitive personnel data, including salary information for over 30,000 employees at the firm. The file is linked to a former Deloitte employee who currently works at Sony, according to a new report from Fusion.
Previously story: The millionaires at Sony Pictures aren’t the only ones in the crosshairs of a devastating hacker attack on the studio, as Fusion.net has discovered that nearly 4,000 studio employees have had their Social Security numbers and other sensitive information compromised.
Documents containing names, birth dates and social security numbers for 3,803 Sony Pictures employees were leaked online as part of the ongoing digital attack on Sony.
A representative for Sony did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Fusion’s Kevin Roose was sent the documents by an anonymous e-mailer on Monday, and he has been doling out information as he sees fit with a journalist-like discretion.
Top Sony executives such as Michael Lynton, Amy Pascal, Doug Belgrad, Michael De Luca and Dwight Caines had their salaries revealed on Monday, but those seasoned Hollywood veterans are used to feeling the heat of the spotlight. However, lower-level employees such as creative executives and assistants aren’t used to having bullseyes on their backs, and that has created a sense of uneasy tension at the studio.
Fusion revealed that Sony’s payrolls adds up to more than $454 million according to the documents it was provided, which also included a script for a recruiting video featuring Lynton.
Sony has already seen several of its films leaked online prior to their theatrical release, which will surely cut into the company’s profits, though studies have shown that awareness levels for those films has risen dramatically.
Some media reports have suspected North Korea of being behind the attack, since the country is lampooned in Sony’s upcoming James Franco-Seth Rogen comedy “The Interview,” but there’s no evidence to suggest that country is behind the attack.
Never shy about courting controversy, North Korean officials have neither confirmed nor denied their involvement, saying “wait and see.”
Sony has reportedly hired the security research firm Mandiant to help with the hack.