Merged Sony Studios hacked.

steve s

Philosopher
steve s
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Feb 16, 2006
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Hrm. The DPRK vs Sony.

One is an evil regime that puts its workers in concentration camps with massive human rights abuses. The other is a small country near China.
 
This is apparently the background to this cyber-battle:


North Korea has blasted a new Hollywood comedy in which two American television workers are recruited to try and kill Kim Jong-un, calling it a symbol of the "desperation" of US society. However, Kim Myong-chol, who is often described as an "unofficial" spokesperson for the communist nation's "supreme leader", said the dictator would probably watch the movie anyway.
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They were not happy:

A spokesman for North Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement Wednesday via the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) condemning the U.S. film “The Interview” as ‘terrorism’.

The statement, which represents the first time North Korea has officially commented on the action-comedy, strongly criticized the film’s storyline, which focuses largely on the attempted assassination of Kim Jong Un.

“We can never forgive their explicit terrorist, provocative deed of producing a film whereby they publicly mirrored the aspiration to assassinate our highest political leader in order to decimate the key philosophy of our military and people and to get rid of our system,” the spokesman said in Korean, calling those who produced the film “gangster-like scoundrels.”

“The international community cannot disguise disturbance after watching the movie trailer that portrays Americans, the best example of terrorists, mocking and assassinating our Highest Dignity (Kim Jong Un) in broad daylight of the United States,” the statement added.
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Is Kim Jong Un still alive? Last I heard he was in ankle surgery, now we get output from a spokesman. Seems typical ploy of the regime of an ill or injured despot.

From there, I have to ask- was he interviewed by a pair of American jouralists just before his ankle problem cropped up? ;)
 
madurobob said:
Seems like something as basic as file encryption would have protected them.

Lets remind people that data security is important.
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Considering that they'll plunk down $100 million on a movie, you'd think they'd spend a few of those bucks hiring a decent cyber security firm.

Steve S
 
North Korea might be behind the Sony film leaks...

Evidence is pointing toward North Korea being behind the hacks which leaked
"Annie" "Still Alice" and several other Major Holiday releases for Sony Studios on line.
Reason:SONY released a movie called "The Interview" which pokes fun at North Korea's Glorious Leader Kim Jong Un.

I can see it now: Kim singing:

"Tommorow,Tommorow,
We're Hack you Tommorow,
Tommrow is a Leak Away".

Truly bizarre. Makes you wonder what the government of Kazahastan could do to Sasha Baron Cohem....
 
I have no facts to back this up, but I'm putting money on it being an inside job. Every year movies get leaked before the Oscars. They are usually "screeners" that reviewers view before the movie is released. Perhaps Sony got slammed this year. Sony has been hacked before though so we shall see.
 
steve s said:
Considering that they'll plunk down $100 million on a movie, you'd think they'd spend a few of those bucks hiring a decent cyber security firm.

Steve S
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A lot of people who work in the film industry are posting stories about how lax not just SONY, but most studios are about computer security.

Probably the old "Security is not a revenue producing department,therefore we need to fund it at minimal levels" mentality.
 
What makes me lean towards an employee or former employee is that the vast majority of the hacked data is HR stuff. Salaries, health insurance information, immigration documents, internal memos, etc. The leaked movies might've been hacked from servers but not necessarily. Movies get leaked online all the time. Sometimes even a workprint will end up on the net. Very few of those movies are actually hacked from the studio's systems. Most were DVD screeners for critics and awards voters that got ripped and uploaded.
 
I have no facts to back this up, but isn't there already a thread on this ?
 
Evidently the group which took responsibility for the hack, and the leaks of the movies and personal details of some Sony employees, has sent an email to several Sony employees threatening their families with harm.

angrysoba said:
This is apparently the background to this cyber-battle:

They were not happy:
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"We can never forgive their deed". This idiom appears very often in KCNA's anti-American bluster; it seems so quaint and out of place, it makes me crack a smile every time I read it. Their screeds commonly call the US all manner of vile names, explicitly threaten it with military destruction and "all-out war" and all this, compare various politicians with animals...and then to top it all off, "we also will never forgive them!" Man, that hurts...my sides.
 
Latest development does seem to support the hack being North Korea-based, or at least -sympathetic. The hackers (or a group claiming to be them) has posted a public message that Sony, if it wants to "escape", must not release "the movie of terrorism which can break the regional peace and cause the War". The only movie that anyone can deduce this must refer to is the Kim-assassination comedy.
 
This reminds me of the terrorists and the Mohammed cartoons. What is it with really bad people that they can't abide being mocked?
 
To mock a person or a group is to take a certain amount of power away from them. People who are obsessed with power really, really don't like it when that happens, and usually will want to try and take it back somehow.
 
Checkmite said:
"the movie of terrorism which can break the regional peace and cause the War". The only movie that anyone can deduce this must refer to is the Kim-assassination comedy.
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Or maybe hackerz, seeking to divert heat, know what they doing and set up the bomb on North Korea.
 
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Still, I'd recommend changing your Playstation store password... It's typical from companies that they wouldn't announce compromised passwords until several weeks after the fact.
 
I had no interest in seeing "The Interview" but now will go see it just to give the finger to GOP and their North Korean bosses.
I suspect that some employee of SONY got a nice deposit in his off shore bank account coutesy of North Korea.
 
marplots said:
This reminds me of the terrorists and the Mohammed cartoons. What is it with really bad people that they can't abide being mocked?
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Can't wait for South Park to have fun with this story.....since Matt and Trey were reponsible for "Team America World Police"...



"It Is Inevitable".......
 
Checkmite said:
To mock a person or a group is to take a certain amount of power away from them. People who are obsessed with power really, really don't like it when that happens, and usually will want to try and take it back somehow.
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There is more power in being able to laugh at yourself.

And this all really misses the point that the movie was making: that getting idiot journalists to kill a world leader is just stupid.
 
Meanwhile...

http://www.techtimes.com/articles/2...ken-offline-following-raid-swedish-police.htm

Popular file-sharing service The Pirate Bay has been taken down by Swedish police, who seized servers and computers in a raid triggered by suspected copyright violations.

The raid follows the discovery that The Pirate Bay was hosting a number of movies from Sony Pictures Entertainment -- films leaked online following a major hack on Sony by yet-to-be-determined parties. The raid was confirmed by Swedish prosecutor Fredrik Ingland, who works on a number of file-sharing cases and who reportedly initiated the raid with local law enforcement.

"There has been a crackdown on a server room in Greater Stockholm. This is in connection with violations of copyright law," said Police National Coordinator for IP enforcement Paul Pintér in a statement.
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I don't know how strong the correlation between the two events is but plenty of tech media are making the link
 
madurobob said:
Seems like something as basic as file encryption would have protected them.

Lets remind people that data security is important.
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Sony pictures employs 7000

their information security division is 11 people. 3 analysts and 8 managers.

So, ya, this was bound to happen.
 
steve s said:
Considering that they'll plunk down $100 million on a movie, you'd think they'd spend a few of those bucks hiring a decent cyber security firm.

Steve S
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There is an interview in which their CIO said something along the lines of "why spend $10 million on something that will protect us from $1 million in damage".

I wonder what that cost-benefit analysis looks like now.
 
Donal said:
There is an interview in which their CIO said something along the lines of "why spend $10 million on something that will protect us from $1 million in damage".

I wonder what that cost-benefit analysis looks like now.
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I'm sure they are feeling some pain and will continue to. But, on the bright side, I've heard *lots* of people say they'd never heard of, but gee they sure do want to see it now!
 
I suddenly really want to see The Interview way more than I did pre-hack.
 
dudalb said:
Good on the cops. I have no liking for stealing other people's intellectual property
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Since we ARE on a sceptics forum and all, can we please stop it with the false equivocation between theft and copyright infringement? There's a reason the two are distinct legal concepts - theft results in the owner of property being denied the use of said property; copyright infringement simply means property has been used without authorisation. So while you can argue that is wrong, you can even argue that you see it as being as wrong as actual theft, please at least employ the correct terminology while doing so.

and that is exactly what Pirate Bay is doing
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Actually, it's not, all TPB does is host hashtag files (in fact I don't think they even host the files anymore, it's all distributed and users collect them using magnet links) that tell which users in a distributed network hold the actual file.
 
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Checkmite said:
Evidently the group which took responsibility for the hack, and the leaks of the movies and personal details of some Sony employees, has sent an email to several Sony employees threatening their families with harm.



"We can never forgive their deed". This idiom appears very often in KCNA's anti-American bluster; it seems so quaint and out of place, it makes me crack a smile every time I read it. Their screeds commonly call the US all manner of vile names, explicitly threaten it with military destruction and "all-out war" and all this, compare various politicians with animals...and then to top it all off, "we also will never forgive them!" Man, that hurts...my sides.
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Don't let it !!! They suck raw stuff I can't put here, well donkey anyway.
 
Travis said:
I suddenly really want to see The Interview way more than I did pre-hack.
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We've all been duped. This was all nothing more than the single greatest viral marketing campaign ever. It is also a sneaky way for Sony to get out of whatever deal they have with Adam Sandler.
 
The latest batch of e-mails has an exchange between horrible boss Scott Rudin (the main inspiration for the producer Tom Cruise played in Tropic Thunder) and Amy Pascal ( Sony's studio head).

Pascal: “What should I ask the president at this stupid Jeffrey breakfast?”
Rudin: “Would he like to finance some movies.”
Pascal: “I doubt it. Should I ask him if he liked DJANGO?”
Rudin: “12 YEARS.”
Pascal: “Or the butler. Or think like a man? [sic]”
Rudin: “Ride-along. I bet he likes Kevin Hart.”


While on the campaign trail in 2008, Obama listed The Godfather as his favorite movie, with The Godfather II as a close second. His third favorite movie? The David Lean epic Lawrence of Arabia.
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http://www.bustle.com/articles/5350...favorite-movie-probably-isnt-django-unchained

So there's this ivy-league educated lawyer, who taught at the University of Chicago, went on to serve as a Senator, won two presidential elections, and cites prestigious films as personal favorites, but because he's half-black (raised by a white woman), he probably likes lowest-common-denominator "black" movies.

Ridiculous.

Now it is a private correspondence, so maybe they had an understanding, and they knew there was a joke-within-the-joke, and if so, it's a good thing they didn't try explaining it because people just wouldn't understand, but I suspect there was no-joke behind the joke.
 
bit_pattern said:
Since we ARE on a sceptics forum and all, can we please stop it with the false equivocation between theft and copyright infringement? There's a reason the two are distinct legal concepts - theft results in the owner of property being denied the use of said property; copyright infringement simply means property has been used without authorisation. So while you can argue that is wrong, you can even argue that you see it as being as wrong as actual theft, please at least employ the correct terminology while doing so.
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One is certainly denied the use of the money that would have come in exchange for distributing the property. It's probably those earnings, rather than the content itself, that people have in mind when they compare copyright infringement to theft.
 
Checkmite said:
One is certainly denied the use of the money that would have come in exchange for distributing the property. It's probably those earnings, rather than the content itself, that people have in mind when they compare copyright infringement to theft.
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It doesn't make the comparison any less wrong. We have two distinct legal concepts - theft and copyright infringement - the whole point of copyright is that it guarantees earning for the rights holder involves a hypothetical loss of earnings. Yet the two offences have been very purposefully framed in different ways in recognition that infringement is not theft in the way it is understood by the law. And the idea that content creators are being denied revenue is crap in many cases anyway, if I live in Australia and illegally download a TV that is paid for by advertising revenue and which isn't available of Australian television then I am not denying anyone anything. Or then there's the fact that people will often download things they wouldn't never have paid for in the first place, for instance I might download a movie just because I can but it doesn't mean if I hadn't have had access to it for free that i would have got on a train, gone to a cinema and shelled out $18 to see. You can tell me that is wrong, that I am infringing on the creators rights, but I am not stealing anything from them.
 
bit_pattern said:
It doesn't make the comparison any less wrong. We have two distinct legal concepts - theft and copyright infringement - the whole point of copyright is that it guarantees earning for the rights holder involves a hypothetical loss of earnings. Yet the two offences have been very purposefully framed in different ways in recognition that infringement is not theft in the way it is understood by the law.
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The definition of a word as defined in law is not always the only legitimate usage of that word.
 
Donal said:
Sony pictures employs 7000

their information security division is 11 people. 3 analysts and 8 managers.

So, ya, this was bound to happen.
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I laughed out loud when I read this.

Are the news media actually reporting and displaying what was in these hacked emails and other documents? Isn't that illegal, if not highly unethical? I'm genuinely wondering because that would be more disturbing to me than the actual hack itself.
 
So the quote function here worked on my previous post but not on this one...oookay.

(Posted by Cain)
The latest batch of e-mails has an exchange between horrible boss Scott Rudin (the main inspiration for the producer Tom Cruise played in Tropic Thunder) and Amy Pascal ( Sony's studio head).

Pascal: “What should I ask the president at this stupid Jeffrey breakfast?”
Rudin: “Would he like to finance some movies.”
Pascal: “I doubt it. Should I ask him if he liked DJANGO?”
Rudin: “12 YEARS.”
Pascal: “Or the butler. Or think like a man? [sic]”
Rudin: “Ride-along. I bet he likes Kevin Hart.”
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I see the media is publishing this stuff - sorry I stay away from Hollywood news for the most part. I feel guilty just quoting it here. Does Sony have legal grounds to sue news agencies who publishing their private financial documents online?

It's funny how people actually seem surprised that not everyone (perhaps nobody) in the US is politically correct behind closed doors. Is this supposed to be outrageous? But we've come soooo far!?!? My gawd, people really are naive.

Some of the stuff we complain about is just laughable.
 
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