One Direction have found themselves among a group of celebrities who may be about to have their dirty laundry aired in public in 2015, after their personal emails were hacked over the Christmas period.
Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan and Liam Payne - along with stars such as Adele and Beyoncé - have been targeted by the same group of hackers who infiltrated Sony's systems and delayed the release of new movie The Interview.
The criminals have reportedly been traced to Pyongyang, North Korea by the FBI and insiders say they now have details of One Direction's contracts and demands, as well as an array of personal messages which could lead to a lot of red faces if the documents are released into the public domain.
Media analyst Mike Raia told The Daily Star in a statemen that careers could easily be ruined if the content of the emails are damaging in any way and explained:
"The potential embarrassment and turmoil would be as devastating as that which has crippled Sony's movie-making arm and effectively killed the general release of 'The Interview'."
He also reported that hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue could be lost, after it was claimed that many music files were also downloaded, meaning albums by stars such as Beyonce, Rita Ora and others could hit file sharing websites before their official release dates.
A senior executive at Sony Music has claimed that the management team are currently in a 'panic' over the situation and putting in place disaster recovery plans for their systems and stars. The source added:
"There are skeletons in everyone's cupboard, only nobody ever expects a bunch of robbers to smash down the door and steal everything inside."
After Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik saw their careers shaken when a private video they recorded in Peru was leaked earlier in 2014, One Direction can't take too many more controversial revelations.
