Sony security measures ‘a joke’ and hack was inevitable

5 Dec 2014

Former employees of Sony have come out to criticise the entertainment giant, as the fallout from the major security breach continues.

The hack of Sony, initially thought to be just the leaking of some unreleased films, has revealed a major tranche of personal information, including social security numbers of over 47,000 current and former employees.

Hollywood stars such as  Judd Apatow, Rebel Wilson and Sylvester Stallone are among those whose personal data has since been released online by a group called Guardians of Peace.

According to the Wall Street Journal, an analysis of 33,000 Sony documents by security firm Identity Finder LLC “found personal data, including salaries and home addresses, posted online for people who stopped working at Sony Pictures as far back as 2000 and one who started in 1955.”

Fusion.net quotes former employees of Sony, who are highly critical of the company’s security set up.

“Sony’s ‘information security’ team is a complete joke,” one said. “We’d report security violations to them and our repeated reports were ignored.”

Another former employee said the company did risk assessments but didn’t follow up on any potential grievances with any real action.

“The real problem lies in the fact that there was no real investment in or real understanding of what information security is,” said the former employee.

The hacked documents are available on torrent sharing websites and Sony is battling to try and find a solution to the problem, hiring FireEye to help get to the bottom of this mess.

Since then FireEye, the FBI and Sony have linked the methods used by the hackers to North Korea for a number of circumstantial reasons.

“The malware was made on a machine with Korean language settings during Korean peninsula working hours and appears very similar to a tool used last year against South Korean banks and television stations,” said the Wall Street Journal.

North Korea’s aggressively worded response to a Sony film called ‘The Interview’ saw the reclusive state call for it to be shelved, and promised a “merciless counter measures” for this “act of war” back in June.

Sylvester Stallone image via Shutterstock

Gordon Hunt was a journalist with Silicon Republic

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