WikiLeaks creates searchable Sony leak database

WikiLeaks has made tens of thousands of leaked Sony documents easily searchable on its website. 

The anti-secrecy group said its searchable archives contain more than 30,000 documents and 173,00 emails, which were leaked last year as part of a massive hack of Sony Pictures Entertainment that the United States blamed on North Korea.  

{mosads}The new search tools will create many more revelations, the group predicted. For example, it noted the database contains emails from nearly 100 government accounts.  

“Whilst some stories came out at the time, the original archives, which were not searchable, were removed before the public and journalists were able to do more than scratch the surface,” the group said in a press release. 

The hack last year of Sony Pictures produced numerous headlines, including documents showing the company’s secret campaign against Google, emails containing crass jokes about President Obama’s race and a number of other embarrassing revelations. 

The United States blamed the hack on North Korea, and further threats to attack theaters led to Sony nearly canceling its release of the film “The Interview,” about a fictional plot to kill the country’s leader.

WikiLeaks is most widely recognized as the organization that published thousands of U.S. war documents and U.S. diplomatic cables in 2010. WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief Julian Assange defended Thursday’s release of the Sony documents. It is in the public interest, he said, because it sheds light on an “influential multinational corporation.”

“It is newsworthy and at the centre of a geo-political conflict. It belongs in the public domain. WikiLeaks will ensure it stays there,” he said in a statement.

Sony Pictures said WikiLeaks is aiding the hackers’ attempt to harm the company. It said it “vehemently disagrees” that the information should be made available. 

“The cyberattack on Sony Pictures was a malicious criminal act, and we strongly condemn the indexing of stolen employee and other private and privileged information on WikiLeaks,” a representative said.  

Chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America, Chris Dodd — the former Massachusetts senator — called Wikipedia’s move “despicable.”

“Wikileaks is not performing a public service by making this information easily searchable,” he said. “Instead, with this despicable act, Wikileaks is further violating the privacy of every person involved.”