Sony cyber attack traced to Bangkok hotel

According to Bloomberg, the source of the recent cyber attack carried out on Sony has been traced to the St Regis hotel in Bangkok.

Using the 5 star hotel’s high speed internet connection the hackers, who are believed to be working on behalf of North Korea, carried out the hugely embarrassing attack which saw large amounts of sensitive information leaked about its 47,000 employees.

Cyber security experts who have been investigating the attack have apparently traced the ‘digital footprints’ of the hackers to the St Regis’ internet network, although it is not clear whether the attack was carried out in a private room or in a public area of the hotel, according to the report in Bloomberg, which quotes an unnamed source.

Experts are also not ruling out the possibility that the attack was carried out remotely by hackers taking advantage of the hotel’s open internet network.

The reasons for carrying out the attack remain unclear, although there has been widespread speculation that groups linked to North Korea hacked Sony in response to the impending release of the movie The Interview, which mocks leader Kim Jong-un. However, North Korea have denied any involvement.

Sony has come under fire for the apparent ease in which hackers were able to locate passwords and confidential employee data once they were gained access to the company’s servers.

Information leaked in the attack included the social security numbers of 47,000 employees including those of Sylvester Stallone, James Franco and Seth Rogan.

According to the Bloomberg report, Starwood Hotels and Resorts who own and operate the St Regis have not yet made any comment regarding the hacking.

If this attack is found to be state sponsored then it raises a lot of questions with regards to global cyber security.

Closer to home, if this cyber attack was carried out in Bangkok then it also raises questions for the Thai authorities, most notably who are the attackers, when did they arrive in Thailand and is Thailand in a position to to be able to prevent such attack happening again in the future?

No doubt this this story will continue to develop in the coming days as we are likely to find out more on just how crippling this will be for Sony.

Jonathan Fairfield

Jonathan is our Google Nexus and Android enthusiast. He is also fanatical about football which makes it all the more strange that he should support Stockport County. In addition to writing about tech, Jonathan has a passion for fitness and nutrition and has previously written for one the UK’s leading watch and horology websites.