Five Stories You're Missing in Sony Hack Saga

Fool Me Once…

Just a few years ago the Japanese company suffered a huge data leak. Back in 2011 hackers managed to steal the accounts of around 77 million Playstation network users. It turned out that the company kept some of the gamers’ personal data unencrypted and even the Sony employees could have had the access to it. After all the numerous class-action lawsuits and fines the company faced, it still found itself in the same trap.

Gossip Girls (and Guys)

Angelina Jolie is a "spoiled brat" with "a rampaging spoiled ego", Obama's favorite movies are likely to be 12 Years A Slave, The Butler and Django Unchained, and Adam Sandler is “an a****le” — those are just a couple of examples of what the company’s top brass were saying behind their stars’ backs. The leaked social security numbers and other personal information has become a slap to company’s IT service, but the offensive discussions of the firm’s key people has thrown shade on its business ethics with possible consequences yet to come. 

Suing for Silence

The company asked the media to stop covering the hack through distributing the stolen information. It even threatened legal actions against everyone who refuse to do so — including Twitter. But such restrictions only added oil to the fire of public interest.

Prudence or Paranoia?

We all know that safety comes first and no doubts on that, but believing in a random hacker’s promise to carry out 9/11-style attacks in every theatre that shows The Interview is at the very least odd. Armed Islamic militants from all over the world keep on making even more aggressive pledges every day and everyone turns a deaf ear to them, but once it comes from unidentified cyber geeks — 18,000 cinemas take the film off their schedules.

The Interview eventually had its world premiere in LA on December 11 and nothing happened — except of course, one regular ‘film’ bad guy, aka North Korea, became the bad guy in real life. 

North Korea: Evil Cyber Mastermind or Convenient Scapegoat?

The CIA is apparently sure about that, but many independent cybersecurity experts doubt North Korea had neither the technical ability nor the knowledge to steal so much information in such a limited time and suggest the attack could rather be carried out from a more advanced IT destination.

Moreover, Pyongyang offered its help in investigating the attack, but the US seems more keen on calling this ‘an act of war’ rather than accept help from the alleged bad guy.