But when it comes to exploiting the fruits of the digital break-in, journalists should voluntarily withhold publication. They shouldn't hold back because they're legally obligated to-I don't believe they are-but because there's no ethical justification for publishing this damaging, stolen material.
Weisberg made an argument that several people who opposed publication of stories gleaned from the hacked data made — that they were functionally similar though less invasive to the release of hacked nude photos of many female celebrities from earlier in the year. Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin who later attempted to argue that the Sony hack was worse than the photo hack also made this argument in the New York Times , writing:. I understand that news outlets routinely use stolen information.
That's how we got the Pentagon Papers, to use an oft-used argument. But there is nothing in these documents remotely rising to the level of public interest of the information found in the Pentagon Papers. Do the emails contain any information about Sony breaking the law? Misleading the public? Acting in direct harm to customers, the way the tobacco companies or Enron did?
Is there even one sentence in one private email that was stolen that even hints at wrongdoing of any kind? Anything that can help, inform or protect anyone? But most journalists ultimately decided there were valid reasons to write about what was found in the stolen information and that much of it was newsworthy, beyond even gossip value. On that last one, ultimately, yeah, I think so. It's not a matter of whether Sony now "deserves" to be cyberterrorized or not, but rather whether the value of what we have learned outweighs how we learned it.
We decided that it was important for you to know how the MPAA plans to influence how you experience the internet, and by extension, how they intend to shape the future of the information marketplace; we could all agree that it had more impact on our world and our lives than top-secret internal intelligence that Scott Rudin is a meanie.
Legally speaking, these reporters were on firm ground, thanks to a Supreme Court decision. The court ruled that a radio station couldn't be held responsible for broadcasting the contents of newsworthy audio recordings — even if the recordings were originally made in violation of wiretapping laws. The same principle seems to apply to the leaked documents.
As long as a news organization didn't participate in the Sony attack itself, it has a First Amendment right to report on newsworthy information it finds in the documents. The attacks — and Sony's subsequent decision to pull The Interview from theaters — could make movie studios gun-shy about controversy in the future. Hollywood has never been a town of risk-takers, but it's only become more risk-averse as the years have gone on. Just take a look at the lists of upcoming sequels collected in this piece.
Regardless of anyone's feelings on how Sony should have handled the situation , the incident still establishes a precedent that makes it harder to get politically risky projects made in a system that's already so uninterested in attracting risk.
To a degree, this has always been true. Projects about touchy subjects are often produced independently, and mainstream movies rarely offer much political criticism for fear of alienating potential audiences. But the situation surrounding The Interview goes above and beyond even that. While the movie did better than could have been anticipated in its unlikely release, box office analyst David Poland still estimates that it ended up a net loss for Sony.
Maybe this case is unique and unrepeatable. Or maybe it's a harbinger of things to come, of the messy world that results when show business, the internet, and foreign policy collide. Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment: to empower through understanding.
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Reddit Pocket Flipboard Email. What were the Sony hacks? What did the attackers do? According to a former Sony employee who posted to Reddit, this is the message Sony employees saw on their screens that Monday morning: The hackers called themselves the Guardians of Peace.
What is The Interview, and why is North Korea so mad about it? Why did Sony decide to pull The Interview? This is still unclear. Most hacks like this begin with a phishing attack, which involve sending emails to employees to get them to click on malicious attachments or visit web sites where malware is surreptitiously downloaded to their machines.
Hackers also get into systems through vulnerabilities in a company's web site that can give them access to backend databases. Once on an infected system in a company's network, hackers can map the network and steal administrator passwords to gain access to other protected systems on the network and hunt down sensitive data to steal.
New documents released by the attackers yesterday show the exact nature of the sensitive information they obtained to help them map and navigate Sony's internal networks. Among the more than 11, newly-released files are hundreds of employee usernames and passwords as well as RSA SecurID tokens and certificates belonging to Sonywhich are used to authenticate users and systems at the companyand information detailing how to access staging and production database servers, including a master asset list mapping the location of the company's databases and servers around the world.
The documents also include a list of routers, switches, and load balancers and the usernames and passwords that administrators used to manage them. All of this vividly underscores why Sony had to shut down its entire infrastructure after discovering the hack in order to re-architect and secure it.
The hackers claim to have stolen a huge trove of sensitive data from Sony, possibly as large as terabytes of data, which they are slowly releasing in batches. Judging from data the hackers have leaked online so far this includes, in addition to usernames, passwords and sensitive information about its network architecture, a host of documents exposing personal information about employees. The leaked documents include a list of employee salaries and bonuses ; Social Security numbers and birth dates; HR employee performance reviews, criminal background checks and termination records; correspondence about employee medical conditions; passport and visa information for Hollywood stars and crew who worked on Sony films; and internal email spools.
All of these leaks are embarrassing to Sony and harmful and embarrassing to employees. But more importantly for Sony's bottom line, the stolen data also includes the script for an unreleased pilot by Vince Gilligan, the creator of Breaking Bad as well as full copies of several Sony films , most of which have not been released in theaters yet. These include copies of the upcoming films Annie , Still Alice and Mr. Notably, no copy of the Seth Rogen flick has been part of the leaks so far.
Initial reports have focused only on the data stolen from Sony. But news of an FBI flash alert released to companies this week suggests that the attack on Sony might have included malware designed to destroy data on its systems. The five-page FBI alert doesn't mention Sony, but anonymous sources told Reuters that it appears to refer to malware used in the Sony hack.
The alert warns about malware capable of wiping data from systems in such an effective way as to make the data unrecoverable. The overwriting of the data files will make it extremely difficult and costly, if not impossible, to recover the data using standard forensic methods. WIRED spoke with a number of people about the hack and have confirmed that at least one of these payloads was found on Sony systems.
Also, as many former and current executives note, GoP never attempted to retaliate further with additional leaks when The Interview was released in theaters albeit at small art houses rather than cineplexes on Christmas Day and on streaming platforms. Marc Rogers, who is head of security at famed hacking conference Defcon and a consultant on Mr. Although the disgruntled-staffer angle generated headlines back in , less explored is the prospect of someone using the hack as a weapon to manipulate the Sony share price.
A number of investors sold large chunks of stock in between the supposed late September breach and the day the world learned of the attack on Nov. There was also one spike in short-selling activity in the weeks leading up to Nov. It is unclear if the SEC ever looked into Sony shortings or sell-offs given that SEC investigations are confidential unless it files an action in court. For instance, there was an attempted bombing against publicly traded German soccer team Borussia Dortmund.
The stock would collapse. You never know the lengths to which people will go. In any case, the hackers appeared to be bent on humiliating Sony, particularly Pascal, who was in the middle of negotiating her contract renewal at the time of the hack. Leaked emails showed Pascal making inappropriate jokes about President Obama and later fighting with Rudin. Sony fought to keep its composure as executive and talent salaries became public the fact that Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence made less than their male co-stars in American Hustle became a Hollywood rallying cry.
Internally, fear reigned. Top executives were given old BlackBerrys that had been stored in the basement of the Thalberg Building. Pascal enlisted a nurse to give sleep-deprived staffers B12 shots. Another former executive says he hired a private investigator after being hacked multiple times following the incursion. As a sign of their resilience, staffers created a video of how they were carrying on, in which they extolled the virtues of going back to basics and having face-to-face conversations.
The Sony legal team advised that it should not be released to the public. Image source, AFP. Fraud protection. Related Topics. Published 29 December Published 18 December
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