Sony Pictures computer network commandeered by hackers

"Sony Has Canceled Plans To Release 'The Interview' On Christmas Day

'In light of the decision by the majority of our exhibitors not to show the film The Interview, we have decided not to move forward with the planned December 25 theatrical release. We respect and understand our partners’ decision and, of course, completely share their paramount interest in the safety of employees and theater-goers.

Sony Pictures has been the victim of an unprecedented criminal assault against our employees, our customers, and our business. Those who attacked us stole our intellectual property, private emails, and sensitive and proprietary material, and sought to destroy our spirit and our morale – all apparently to thwart the release of a movie they did not like. We are deeply saddened at this brazen effort to suppress the distribution of a movie, and in the process do damage to our company, our employees, and the American public. We stand by our filmmakers and their right to free expression and are extremely disappointed by this outcome.' "

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/17/sony-cancels-the-interview_n_6343926.html

"...That a anonymous hacking squad could derail the plans for one of the world’s biggest entertainment firms, experts said, marks a worrying new precedent for cyberterror that could encourage even more attacks. With one inexpensive hack, a team of cybercriminals can generate the kinds of international fear once only achievable through bomb or terror threats.

'This is the real danger to corporate America in the cyber domain,' said Alec Ross, a senior fellow at Columbia University’s School of International & Public Affairs. 'The cost to build powerful malignant weapons is shockingly low. There are very well-developed communities of hackers for hire all over the world that can develop very powerful cyberweapons for exceedingly low costs.'...............

Some experts said the disastrous hack should push Fortune 500 companies like Sony even further toward investing in and mounting their own corporate measures of cyberdefense.
'Historically, companies have viewed cyber-security as a subset of the IT function,'Ross said. 'But it’s time to take cyber-defense out of the org-chart ghetto and elevate it.' ”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...608-11e4-9534-f79a23c40e6c_story.html?hpid=z1

 

"U.S. Officials Determine North Korea Is Behind Sony Hack

U.S. officials have determined that hackers working for North Korea are behind the Sony Pictures Entertainment attack, multiple news outlets reported Wednesday.
According to NBC, the hack originated outside of North Korea, but appears to have been carried out by individuals working for the North Korean government.

While officials told the AP and CNN that an announcement would come in the near future, The New York Times reports that the White House is still weighing how it will respond to the attack:

'Senior administration officials, who would not speak on the record about the intelligence findings, said the White House was still debating whether to publicly accuse North Korea of what amounts to a cyberterrorism campaign.
...
Officials said it was not clear how the White House would decide to respond to North Korea. Some within the Obama administration argue that the government of Mr. Kim must be directly confronted, but that raises the question of what consequences the administration would threaten — or how much of its evidence it could make public without revealing details of how the United States was able to penetrate North Korean computer networks to trace the source of the hacking.' "

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/17/us-north-korea-sony-hack_n_6344250.html

 

That movie was made. "Death of a President" is styled as a TV investigative documentary that examines the as-yet-unsolved crime years after the assassination of President George W. Bush in Chicago. It was made and distributed in theaters in 2007 while GW Bush was a sitting president. I was shocked to see it existed, but I watched it, I believe on Amazon, where it is still available for streaming. Though a sad film in extremely poor taste, to say the least, and outrageous at worst, it was a well made, realistic, and interesting film, particularly if you have an interest in the operations of the Secret Service.

The video which outraged America by depicting the assassination of President George W Bush won an award at the Toronto film festival., And as you surmised, the movie sparked controversy in America and the British film-makers had to be guarded by private security men at the film festival after threats were made on their lives.

It was made by Lionsgate, now a well known UK Co, with studios in California, that has produced many excellent popular films.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-405644/George-Bush-assassination-film-wins-award.html

There is a story about it in today's Washington Post, written in the context of Sony's "The Interview," which IMHO was a bone-head idea that cost Sony $44 million to make. Given the recent publicity/controversy surrounding it, it was anticipated to take in $30 million in the first 3 days of showing, which Sony badly needed because the hacking has made the studio totally inoperable and all its hardware and network worthless and placed in secure storage.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...-imagined-the-assassination-of-george-w-bush/

This was not a cyber-attack-it was an act of terrorism - an act of RL threatened human carnage to achieve a political end, which was successful. Hacking and Cyber-warfare has entered a new era. It's success will likely inspire other demons.

"A new script has now been written for cyberattacks: Hack and hack well. Be stealthy, then show your skills and power not by disrupting a site’s services, but by peeling back the target’s veil of secrecy. This will prove you are real and were really digging into the company’s sock drawer.

Finally, make a threat. The threat, though, should move you out from behind your computer and into the real world, where, just like in a fantasy movie, you will wield new, physical skills with weapons and planning. You are an evil mastermind who can make people cower and dismantle all our hopes and beliefs."

http://mashable.com/2014/12/17/sony-hackers-precedent/?utm_campaign=Feed: Mashable (Mashable)&utm_cid=Mash-Prod-RSS-Feedburner-All-Partial&utm_medium=feed&utm_source=feedburner

I fear that this is just the beginning. There is no telling what will come next, what/who will be the next target, and where this will all end.

Although it was just a stupid movie intended to entertain, the implications make this a tragic day for all who are good and decent.

I hope The President's response is strong and swift to show that those who do evil do not go unpunished, which will serve as an example to deter others, be they countries or individuals, from committing similar acts.

Destroy a company with hundreds of employees and threaten a family's lives for going to watch a movie and eat popcorn. How low can they go?

Evil,cyber-punk terrorists.

 

"Leaked Sony Emails: State Department Approved Death Scene of Kim Jong-Un in 'The Interview'

The Daily Beast has unearthed several emails that reveal at least two U.S. government officials screened a rough cut of the Kim Jong-Un assassination comedy The Interview in late June and gave the film—including a final scene that sees the dictator’s head explode—their blessing.

The claim that the State Department played an active role in the decision to include the film’s gruesome death scene is likely to cause fury in Pyongyang. Emails between the Sony Entertainment CEO and a security consultant even appear to suggest the U.S. government may support the notion that The Interview would be useful propaganda against the North Korean regime.............."

http://readersupportednews.org/news...death-scene-of-kim-jong-un-in-qthe-interviewq

 

Big difference between investigating a past assassination of a leader and portraying that you intend to assassinate the current one. This movie is pure provocation. Sony is acting as a propaganda instrument of the government. I agree, their response has gone too far, but I doubt ours would have been any better if the roles were reversed. Business must be slow at the weapons factories. Not enough war to maintain profits.

 

"Sony’s surrender will strengthen hackers, experts say

Sony’s shock decision to scrap the Dec. 25 release of its controversial movie “The Interview” will strengthen hackers, experts warn, fueling debilitating cyberattacks on other high-profile firms......

Experts warn that Sony’s decision could spur politically motivated hackers to launch even more ambitious assaults against corporations and governments.

~Do not post entire articles of copyrighted material.~

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2014/12/18/experts-sonys-capitulation-will-strengthen-hackers/

 

Same old pattern here. Start with an unproven assumption, then keep adding to it. Remember Iraq and WMDs? Same script all over again. If we call them terrorists often enough, people will accept it as truth. If we apply the same standards to ourselves, threatening to infiltrate a foreign government and assassinate its leader is also a terrorist threat.

We don't need another war, especially over a propaganda movie. Some will say that the movie is fiction and entertainment. What does it say about us as individuals and a nation when we consider the assassination of foreign leaders as entertainment?

 

Worst case, exactly. But it's no secret we've been long at cyber war with China, Iran, Russia, pretty much everyone and etc. I don't think it'd be far fetched to think North Korea outsourced it to western hackers- it happens.

Like there already isn't enough motivation for people to do various things already. It's already pretty bad.

 

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/reaction-to-the-sony-hack-is-beyond-the-realm-of-stupid

 

@Veeshush
That's an accurate description. That's what most of this has been, one stupidity on top of another.

 

Documents in Sony leak show how state attorney general was cozy with Hollywood
http://www.theverge.com/2014/12/18/7417751/documents-in-sony-leak-show-state-attorney-general-was-cozy-with-hollywood

 

Priorities and expectations are about to change ... finally.

• Top priority: secure systems and deploy stringent usage rules.
• Secondly, expect your systems can be hacked.

Sony is now the poster company for what can go wrong. IT departments do not have the resources or specialized skills to do penetration testing (business term for hacking...but you guys already knew that!) so some companies bite the bullet and they hire others to do it. Unfortunately few companies see any need to do this. These white hat hackers say that they can break a corporate security setup 99% of the time. The glaring holes get plugged if the budget allows. One glaring hole that seldom gets plugged is usage rules. Executives and staff violate usage rules because they can. I worked for a company that made it a condition of employment ... it worked, as some people got fired for exposing the company jewels to outside intruders.

Sony violated good security practices and paid the price. The movie, the hack origin and the response is a political matter. CEOs had better be focusing on keeping their own house in order and understand that this is a wake up call to all of them. Be warned, unions are going to use this in upcoming negotiations. Protect the staff's private info as well as the corporation's assets and intellectual property.

 

The last 2 places I worked would also be good examples. The engineering and quality control departments of one of them spent a good part of the day shopping online or playing on Facebook. On the other job, it was the line employees. It's pointless to make policies that say no personal internet usage when they don't enforce them. Those work stations didn't need internet access and shouldn't have had it at all.

 

Citing from a standpoint of censorship, in an end year Press conference, US President Barack Obama states:

http://www.wired.com/2014/12/obama-sony-made-a-mistake/

 

It's worth mentioning North Korea has always had controversy in the film world. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shin_Sang-ok And Vice also did a documentary about North Korea's film studio (just search on youtube if interested). All that I do feel is all part of this stuff as a whole.

Yeah, while I think Sony will end up generating a lot of revenue for what I assume to be a mediocre movie at best, because of all the media attention. I am a believer in freedom of art, film included.

 

Despite my loss of faith in the United States in recent years Obama is right and that it was a mistake. Sony should have done a deal to put it on Youtube......... Oh wait they were using the legal system to undermine Google.

I wonder if you could get North Korea to demand a few more things. I am thinking stopping Kim Kardashian from appearing on television or at least stop her from releasing any more nude photos and videos.

 

I'm guessing that LulzSec left backdoors behind. Sony and the US government are being trolled.

 

Hadn't thought about that. That would be the ultimate lulz.

 

It was LulzSec that first hacked SONY

 

@ Veeshush

I don't have a political point-of-view on the subject.

 

FBI: North Korea to Blame for Sony Hack

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2014/12/fbi-north-korea-to-blame-for-sony-hack/

 

Well, this should be interesting.

Larry Flynt has spent a lifetime and a small fortune fighting it out in the courts for freedom of expression and speech. Whatever your opinion of him for his business, he is a highly intelligent,eloquent, fearless, and a direct "no holds barred" observer and commentator on our society, government, civil liberties,and politics.

He has shown no fear of past threats made against him by the US Govt, it's doubtful he will fold against North Korea. His film is likely to make Kim Jong-Un wish he never heard the word Sony, I'll wager.

"'The Interview' Porn Parody Is Really Going To Upset Kim Jong-Un: Hustler Boss"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/20/hustler-interview-porn-parody_n_6359634.html

LOL: He's probably doing it on a CIA Contract as part of The President's "proportional response."

I have to laugh when I imagine the nude sex scenes of Kim Jong-Un."

 

The part that'll be censored in the history books.

 

This movie and it's contents existing. (I'm just playing around). Looks like that studio got/will get quite the cash grab though.

Really though, I'd be very surprised if they don't react or retaliate to that one. I doubt physical war of any sort from ANY of this as a whole, just more of the same.