Sony Hack: Warning Of 'Christmas Gift,' Hackers Say Employees Can Stay Out Of Info Dump

The group of hackers who continue to release a torrent of private information from Sony Pictures Entertainment has offered to relent for employees who simply ask. The offer comes as fallout from the hack enters its third week, with more and more personal correspondence being released as time goes on.

The note came in the latest message from the group calling itself Guardians of Peace, widely believed to be a proxy for the North Korean government carrying out an attack in retaliation for the upcoming release of Sony’s movie “The Interview.” The data thieves have already released a trove of embarrassing information, including correspondence between Sony executives, salary information and employee social security information. Yet, if a message posted Saturday is true, Sony staffers can avoid the spotlight by asking the Guardians of Peace to hold back.

“Message to SPE staffers,” the note reads. “We have a place to release emails and privacy of the Sony Pictures employees. If you don’t want your privacy to be released, tell us your name and business title to take off your data.”

The warning came on the same day that Guardians of Peace also threatened to unveil a “Christmas gift” in the coming weeks.

“The gift will be larger quantities of data,” the message stated, “and it will be more interesting. The gift will surely give you much more pleasure and put Sony Pictures into the worst state. Please send an email titled by ‘Merry Christmas’ at the addresses below to tell us what you want in our Christmas gift.”

Sony has responded to the leak by sending a letter to media outlets, saying Sony Pictures “does not consent to your possession, review, copying, dissemination, publication, uploading, downloading or making use of the Stolen Information.”