Sony reportedly attempting to stop downloads of stolen data

New leaks of Sony’s confidential internal documents have been appearing daily, while the company works with the FBI in an attempt to pin down who the attacker is.

Recode reports today that Sony has begun deploying methods to stop or slow down users who attempt to download its documents using peer-to-peer technology.

According to the report, Sony is deploying fake “seeds” — instances of shared files — which overwhelm user’s torrent applications with fake traffic. Recode notes that this same method was used many years ago to attempt to block movie downloads.

The method is basically a Distributed Denial of Service against those who attempt to download the files, which ultimately slows the download or even brings it to a halt.

Another report earlier this week said that it appeared Sony was serving up the files over its own servers on Amazon Web Services that also host the PlayStation network. This could actually be the method the company is using to attempt to stem downloads of its files.

Sony refused to comment on Recode’s report.

➤ Sony Pictures Tries to Disrupt Downloads of its Stolen Files [Recode]

Update: Amazon reached out to us with this comment on rumors of Sony using AWS to thrwart would-be downloaders:

“AWS employs a number of automated detection and mitigation techniques to prevent the misuse of our services. In cases where the misuse is not detected and stopped by the automated measures, we take manual action as soon as we become aware of any misuse. Our terms are clear about this. The activity being reported is not currently happening on AWS.”