The hackers that broke into Sony Pictures Entertainment promised Sunday to hold back the names of any non-executive employees who don't want their names included in forthcoming public data dumps.
"Message to SPE Staffers. We have a plan 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," said Guardians of Peace, the nom de guerre of the hacker group,
according to Re/code.
The message came along with the group's eighth leak, a 6-gigabyte trove of emails belonging to Steve O’Dell, president of Sony Pictures Releasing International.
Keeping Sony and all of Hollywood on pins and needles, the new dump also included a message promising that forthcoming disclosures "will be larger quantities of data. And it will be more interesting."
That's not to say that the previous dumps haven't been interesting, however. Since the first one was leaked on Nov. 24, several forthcoming movies have been illegally released online, emails between Sony executives show them calling actress Angelina Jolie a "brat" and wondering aloud if Obama was a fan of the studio's predominantly black movies, a James Bond script was likely obtained, and more.
The true identity of the hackers is unknown, but many have pointed a finger at the North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, who is lampooned and possibly assassinated in the plot of "The Interview" starring James Franco and Seth Rogan, opening Christmas day.
According to The New York Times, North Korea has denied responsibility, but did go on record publicly supporting the effort.
"Sony’s executives now say they knew that basing a film on the assassination of a living national leader — even a ruthless dictator — had inherent risks," wrote the Times. "But the studio seems to have gotten much more than it bargained for by bankrolling what it hoped would be an edgy comedy."