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Sony investigates breach claims as hackers fight over who's responsible. Sony says that it is investigating allegations of a cyberattack this week as different hackers have stepped up to claim responsibility for the purported hack. While claims of attacking Sony's systems were initially made by an extortion group called RansomedVC, a different threat actor has touted themselves to be the attackers and refuted RansomedVC's claims. Thus far, over 3.14 GB of uncompressed data, allegedly belonging to Sony, has been dumped on hacker forums. Sony investigating as 3.14 GB of data leaked This week, a threat actor by the name of RansomedVC claimed it had hacked SONY.com and put its "data and access" up for sale. "We have successfully [compromised] all of Sony systems," read a note posted on RansomedVC's onion leak site. "We wont ransom them! we will sell the data. due to Sony not wanting to pay." BleepingComputer observed the sample data posted by RansomedVC was minuscule, about 2 MB—comprising a PowerPoint presentation, some Java source code files, Eclipse IDE screenshots, and other assets. RansomedVC claimed to BleepingComputer that it had breached Sony's networks and stolen 260 GB of data during the attack that they are attempting to sell for $2.5 million. We reached out to Sony Corporation for confirmation about the attack. "We are currently investigating the situation, and we have no further comment at this time," a Sony Group Corporation spokesperson told BleepingComputer this morning. However, the matters have become murky, with another threat actor 'MajorNelson' also claiming responsibility for the attack, and refuting RansomedVC's claims. "You journalists believe the ransomware crew for lies. Far too gullible, you should be ashamed," the threat actor MajorNelson posted on BreachForums, criticizing recent news reports that have attributed the attack as real without confirmation and credited RansomedVC. "RansomedVCs are scammers who are just trying to scam you and chase influence. Enjoy the leak." Contrary to posting a small sample, MajorNelson has "leaked for free" a 2.4 GB compressed archive, which contains 3.14 GB of uncompressed data that it claims belongs to Sony. The threat actor states that the dump contains: "A lot of credentials for internal systems," and files related to: BleepingComptuer further observed the archive posted by MajorNelson had all of the files that were present in RansomedVC's small sample, but definitive attribution remains a challenge. While the data shared by the attackers does appear to belong to Sony, BleepingComputer was not able to independently verify the veracity of either threat actor's claims. Prior to this week's allegations, Sony's most prominent encounter with a cyber attack happened in 2014 when North Korean hackers breached Sony Pictures in an attempt to censure the screening of the film, The Interview.

Daily Brief Summary

DATA BREACH // Sony Allegedly Suffers Data Breach as Hackers Quarrel Over Responsibility

Sony is investigating allegations of a cyberattack this week, with claims of responsibility coming in from different hacker groups including RansomedVC and another called MajorNelson.

Over 3.14 GB of uncompressed data, purportedly belonging to Sony, has been leaked on hacker forums.

RansomedVC initially claimed responsibility for hacking SONY.com, stating it had compromised the company's systems and intended to sell the stolen data.

The group claimed to have stolen about 260GB of data and attempted to sell it for around $2.5 million.

MajorNelson also claimed responsibility for the attack, stating it had "leaked for free" a 2.4 GB compressed data file containing data allegedly from Sony.

MajorNelson also discredited RansomedVC's claims, accusing them of lying to gain influence.

The veracity of either hacker group's claim could not be independently verified, and it remains unclear who is responsible for the purported attack.