Sony Pictures Entertainment's Dark Christmas

(Baonghean) - Hollywood industry giant Sony Pictures Entertainment is facing an unprecedented crisis when all information and data of the company's internal network was stolen for the purpose of blackmail.

Sony Pictures Entertainment studio in Los Angeles.

On November 24, Sony Pictures employees discovered that the internal network was attacked when all local computers displayed the message "We have broken into your internal data warehouse, including important secrets and passwords. This is just the beginning. If you do not comply with what is told, we will publicly release this data to the whole world." Very quickly, experts began investigating and confirmed that the entire information system of Sony Pictures, including international "antennas" located outside the US, had been hacked and partially disabled. Sony Pictures France CEO Eric Brune said: "We do not have access to email and the internal network. In the meantime, we have to manage data manually."

The period that followed ushered in a truly dark time for Sony Pictures when the hackers began posting data on major sharing sites. First were DVD-quality copies of four unreleased Sony Pictures films, including "Annie," the famous film starring Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx. Scheduled to be released this coming Christmas, at least tens of thousands of downloads have been made, causing undeniable damage to Sony Pictures. The severity of the leak went beyond revenue as hundreds of thousands of confidential files with a capacity of up to 200Gb were also posted. These included legal documents, details on human resource management, marketing plans, new film scripts, contract agreements, private emails, etc.

It is worth mentioning that this attack not only exposed Sony Pictures' secrets to the eyes of the media and rival companies, but also threatened the company's relationship with Hollywood. For example, in an email exchange between the company's leaders, actress Angelina Jolie was mentioned as someone with a "destructive ego". Even President Obama was one of the topics mentioned. The damage does not only come from the outside but can also come from within the company when Sony Pictures employees are all confused about the personal information such as phone numbers, bank card numbers, passwords, passports, visas, social security numbers, etc. being revealed online. Former employees of the company have even thought about filing a lawsuit against Sony Pictures for this serious security breach. Of course, we are talking about a gloomy scene for the Hollywood giant in the future. What about now? The man in black is still standing in the shadows and making a defiant statement: "Either pay up, or Sony Pictures will be shut down."

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According to Le monde