Sony hack: The Interview approved for release in statement claiming to be from hacker group

No way of verifying release comes from same source as hacks

Workers remove a poster-banner for "The Interview" from a billboard in Hollywood, a day after Sony announced it had no choice but to cancel the movie's Christmas release and pull it from theaters due to a credible threat

A new post claiming to be from the hackers that have crippled Sony Pictures and caused the release of a film to be cancelled has been released, apparently giving permission to re-launch the film but laying out new rules.

CNN reported that the post, which says that “The Interview may release now”, had also been sent to Sony emails that received previous posts.

The post claims to be from the ‘Guardians of Peace’, or GOP, who have claimed responsibility for the hacks. The identity of the group remains unknown, though the US suspects that the attack was carried out by North Korea.

But anyone can post anonymously on Pastebin, where the group’s messages have been hosted since the beginning, with little way to verify whether a user is who they claim to be.

Previous posts have been at least partly verified by their being released at the same time as leaked documents — all of the batches of data that have been released so far have been accompanied by similar releases.

But even those are not necessarily certifiable, since there is no way to be sure that those releasing the data are the same people involved in taking it from Sony’s servers.

The full text of the post is as follows:

This is GOP.
You have suffered through enough threats.
We lift the ban.
The Interview may release now.

But be carful.
September 11 may happen again if you don't comply with the rules.
Rule #1: no death scene of Kim Jong Un being too happy
Rule #2: do not test us again
Rule #3: if you make anything else, we will be here ready to fight
This is Guardians Of Peace.