The Sony breach: If it seemed like it was over with the release of The Interview, think again. Sources say that it’s entirely possible that the hackers still, even now, have access to the media powerhouse’s systems.
More than a month ago, Sony Entertainment was hit by a debilitating cyber-attack, investigators from the FBI and FireEye were unable to confirm that the hackers had been eradicated from the systems, according to the Wall Street Journal. And because the perpetrators have only released a fraction of what they claim to have stolen (100 terabytes of company-crippling gold), they’re still not sure how far the rabbit hole goes.
Sources told the WSJ that if the systems are in fact secure, everything should be back to normal on Sony’s network within the next two months.
Sony chief Michael Lynton told the paper that an old cache of BlackBerrys and an old-fashioned phone tree information dissemination solution was on-boarded to get the studio’s communications back up and running in the immediate aftermath of the attack.
“It took me 24 or 36 hours to fully understand that this was not something we were going to be able to recover from in the next week or two,” Lynton said.
The attackers call themselves the Guardians of Peace, and it's believed that North Korea is behind the incident, in retaliation for the release of The Interview. That film features Seth Rogan and James Franco as hapless journalists recruited by the CIA to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Pyongyang has called the film 'an act of war' but has vehemently denied its involvement in the attack. It has offered to aid in a "joint investigation" of the hacks, which, if refused, would result in 'grave consequences' for the US.
The FBI has officially concluded North Korea's link to the cyber-attack.
So far the GOP has leaked the salary and Social Security numbers for thousands of Sony employees, private emails between executives, information about the future of the Spider-Man franchise, upcoming movies like Fury and Annie online, and the script to the next James Bond movie.
After a back-and-forth as to whether the studio should press ahead with releasing The Interview, it was rolled out in limited release and via online and digital channels, so far taking in more than $18 million in digital and box-office revenues. That makes it Sony Pictures’ biggest online film release of all time.