Sony investigator says cyber attack 'unparalleled' crime

Credit: Reuters/Pawel Kopczynski

1 of 2. A hand is silhouetted in front of a computer screen in this picture illustration taken in Berlin May 21, 2013.

Kevin Mandia, the top executive at FireEye Inc's Mandiant forensics unit, made the comment in a letter to Michael Lynton, the head of Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE).

Lynton forwarded that message to his employees on Saturday, saying that the note was 'helpful in understanding the nature of what we are dealing with.'

Mandia, whose forensics firm has probed some of the biggest and most sophisticated cyberattacks known to date, told Lynton in his email that 'The scope of this attack differs from any we have responded to in the past, as its purpose was to both destroy property and release confidential information to the public.'

He added in the email that 'The bottom line is that this was an unparalleled and well planned crime, carried out by an organized group, for which neither SPE nor other companies could have been fully prepared.'

(Reporting by Lisa Richwine and Jim Finkle)