When the hackee becomes the hacker… In a somewhat amusing twist to the ongoing Sony Pictures hack and massive breach of sensitive files and unreleased films, the company is now fighting back. According to two unnamed sources, Sony is now using “hundreds of computers” to perform a DDoS on websites where you can download the leaked data. Better yet, Sony is apparently using Amazon’s cloud servers to perform the DDoS. While I’m all for proactive security measures, Sony might be taking it a little bit too far here.
Sony Pictures is still reeling from the hack on its computer network in which a group calling itself the Guardians of Peace made off with loads of personal data on employees and celebrities. The sensitive data has since shown up on a number of outlets across the web and in an effort to slow the leaks, Sony has reportedly resorted to hacker methods of its own. Two people familiar with the matter claim Sony is using hundreds of computers in Asia to launch distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on sites hosting the stolen data. Specifically, they’re using Amazon Web Services (AWS) – the e-commerce giant’s cloud computing arm – located in Singapore and Tokyo to pull off the attacks. In a response to Re/code, Amazon said the activity being reported is not currently happening on AWS. A spokesperson for the company declined to say whether or not AWS had been used in such a matter before today.
