WEEK 8 - Why look for Threats and Vulnerability? (Sony Pictures Attack)


          Even huge corporations are susceptible threats and vulnerabilities. The Sony Pictures attack was one of the most infamous hacker compromises in recent history. On November 24 2014, a hacker group tried to blackmail Sony Picture heads by threatening the release of company and employee sensitive data. This was the first time “Ransom-ware” was highlighted and now seems to be picking up in popularity across many news outlets. After the failure to act, and the exploit of an insurmountable amount of data, the event led to severe layoffs across the industry from the top down. It led to the firing of Sony Chairman Amy Pascal, whom once was hailed by Forbes as one of the most powerful women in the world. The company’s inept security protocols and disorganized structure gave them no chance to ward off such an attack. Eventually this in incident opened the eyes of all major corporations in the United States. Many companies realized how vulnerable they were and what was now needed to safeguard themselves.


          This Infamous attack from the “Guardians of Peace,” was quickly blamed on North Korea. After further research, there doesn’t seem to be much validity to that accusation. At the time, mid-level investigators had based their theories on the fact that the code was similar to another attack that had taken place by North Korea. What wasn’t known to everyday citizens at the time was that once hacker code is used, it is often quickly grabbed and reused by other hackers. The code is used as a shortcut to other variables of malware being programmed. This process dilutes any “fingerprints” of code and is not a feasible tool to identify assailants. To this day, no one has been identified or charged with this crime.