Sony’s reputation on the ropes as hacking scandal continues to bite
Forget embarrassing movie star revelations, the real damage from the entertainment giant's hacking scandal could drag on for years
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 11 December, 2014, 11:06pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 11 December, 2014, 11:06pm
The Washington Post
Sony co-chairman Amy Pascal faces a PR nightmare. Photo: AP
The hack of Sony Pictures Entertainment has escalated into a public humiliation as deeply held secrets continue spilling on to the internet in ways experts say could damage the Hollywood studio for years to come.
The architects of the attack have shown little interest in the traditional targets of cyber-intrusions, such as credit cards, choosing instead to use information as a weapon of vengeance for supposed misdeeds by the company.
The troves of stolen information have found a voracious audience online, where Sony long has been a target because of its aggressive anti-piracy efforts.
The consequences have been swift and devastating since the attack became public last month, exposing Sony to potential lawsuits and backlash from key Hollywood players.
The inside drama revealed this week was the unravelling of a high-profile project at Sony to produce a biopic of the late Apple founder Steve Jobs — the movie was eventually lost to a rival studio. Reams of emails were released showing one of the studio's top executives embroiled in a fight with a powerful movie producer, with the producer at one point calling actress Angelina Jolie a "minimally talented spoiled brat", according to emails published by Gawker.
In one exchange between Amy Pascal, Sony Pictures' co-chairman, and Scott Rudin, the producer who brought the Jobs project to the studio, the two are arguing over Jolie, who wants director David Fincher to direct her movie on Cleopatra rather than the Jobs biopic. Rudin is adamantly against letting Jolie have her way.
"She's a camp event and a celebrity and that's all - and the last thing anybody needs is to make a giant bomb with her that any fool could see coming," writes Rudin.
Beyond gossip about stars and failed projects, Sony now faces real-world financial and business threats. Leaked health details, Social Security numbers and other personal data could invite lawsuits under California's strict data protection laws.
Pay details could be used in labour disputes and may ripple across the industry. Just last week the hackers, calling themselves Guardians of Peace, sent threatening emails to Sony employees.
But perhaps the most damaging will be harm to Sony's reputation. With only a small portion of the documents — some reports put it at more than 100 terabytes — now online, the drip-drip-drip of revelations could continue for months or years.
"There is a ring of fire around the trade secrets of Hollywood, and the value of executives is in their ability to keep confidences and secrets and to maintain a level of distance," said Jeremy Goldman, an entertainment and intellectual property attorney for Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz.
The Sony hack has underscored the vulnerability of corporate computer systems in an increasingly connected world.
"I think it's bad times ahead, and for the most part people are not prepared for it," said Haroon Meer, founder of Thinkst Applied Research, which warned clients about the risk of similar attacks in a recent report.
Sony has endured a wave of criticism in recent days for a reportedly lax approach to cybersecurity. In one widely mocked remark, Sony's top information security official told CIO magazine in 2007 that it was "a valid business decision" to accept some cybersecurity risk because preventing an attack could be more expensive than simply enduring it.
"The phrase 'blaming the victim' is not a good one," said Parker Higgins, director of copyright activism for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group. "But there are people who are willing to do that when the victim is Sony."
Investigators say they believe the Sony hack emanated from North Korea - perhaps in retaliation for the company's role in producing The Interview, a comedy built around a fictional CIA plot to assassinate Kim Jong-un.
The FBI has not yet publicly fingered a culprit.
