Good Example Of The Sony Hack: The Importance Of Protecting Data Essay

Assignment Number

On November 24, 2014, hackers launched a sophisticated attack on the Hollywood studio Sony Pictures. At first, skulls appeared on the screens of Sony employees, with a threatening message about compromised secret data (Alvarez, 2014). The hackers identified themselves as the "Guardians of Peace" and demanded that Sony stop the release of an upcoming movie called “The Interview”, a satirical comedy revolving around the assassination of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (Gibbs, 2014). The group released a hacked version of the film and other date, including personal emails and information about Sony employees. While Sony and the U.S. F.B.I accused North Korea of perpetrating the attack, other technology experts believe it was an inside job by a disgruntled ex-employee (Alvarez). The compromise of the Sony network caused Sony to initially cancel the debut of the film, but it was shown in some independent theaters and later released online. North Korea has denied they were behind the cyber attack, asking for definitive proof they were involved (Gibbs, 2014).
The Sony attack shows that small governments, or even a person in his mothers basement can compromise powerful institutions. The security does not seem sufficient to protect the assets. If valuable content, personal information and other sensitive information is stored as 1 and 0’s, it needs to be protected like gold bars, because the date can be extremely valuable, destructive if released and could include information about national security. From a business standpoint, allowing your information to be stolen anonymously is not only embarrassing, it makes the business look ineffectual and untrustworthy. It is not good business. Regardless of who was behind the attack, it was a wake up call for business that are guarding millions of dollars of data in their computer systems. One breach can cause a great deal of damage and expense. Businesses need to invest serious money in protecting their data. The U.S. government, and other government around the world, need to be more proactive about hacking, before it is too late. A pirated mediocre film may be an expensive loss to Sony, but there are much larger targets on the internet, including health-care institutions, credit card companies or governmental organizations.

References

Alvarez, E. (2014). Sony Pictures hack: The whole story. Engadget.Com. Retrieved December 10, 2014.
Gibbs, S. (n.d.). Sony uses hacker techniques to fight back over stolen data. Retrieved January 11, 2015.
Himma, K. E. (Ed.). (2007). Internet security: hacking, counterhacking, and society. Jones & Bartlett Learning.
"Sony Pictures Entertainment Notice Letter" (n.d.). Retrieved December 8, 2014, from http://oag.ca.gov/system/files/12 08 14 letter_0.pdf
“Update on Sony Investigation”. (2014, December 19). Retrieved January 20, 2015, from http://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/update-on-sony-investigation