Hackers use email to threaten Sony Pictures staff and their families

Sony Pictures staff received a threatening email claiming to be from the hackers who breached the entertainment giant's computer network, reportedly with warnings that they and their families were "in danger".

The email from a group calling itself Guardians of Peace (GOP) also warned that "all hope will leave you and Sony Pictures will collapse", according to the industry journal Variety.

A Sony Pictures spokesman confirmed that the threatening email was sent to some staff on Friday, but not the nature of the threat. Sony Pictures confirmed the hack attack earlier in the week, calling it a "brazen" effort that netted a "large amount" of confidential information, including movies, as well as personnel and business files.

It is not clear who GOP are, but Sony Pictures has downplayed a report that North Korea was behind the attack.

Spokesman Robert Lawson did not verify the full content of the threatening email, but a transcript published by Variety warned that "removing Sony Pictures on earth is a very tiny work for our group which is a worldwide organisation".

"What we have done so far is only a small part of our further plan … All hope will leave you and Sony Pictures will collapse," the email read.