Background Information
On November 25, Sony Pictures faced one of the most significant challenges in its operations when a group that called itself the GOP (Guardians Of Peace) hacked their way into corporation's systems. The hacking which added to many of the chronicles of data theft activities left Sony network crippled for days. Valuable data that included previously unreleased films were posted on the internet. The hacking was alleged to be committed by North Korea in retribution for the imminent release of an upcoming movie known as "The Interview." Even though politically motivated cyber attacks in addition to theft of intellectual property rights are nothing new, the hacking incident at Sony Pictures stood out for a variety of reasons (Alvarez, 2014) . Through the Pastebin link, links and packages to torrent files hosted on four sites that consisted of 26 parts broken down into 25 1GB files and one 894 MB RAR file. The records were later uploaded to two of the file sharing giants that is MEGA and Rapidgator. However, they were removed by the site's managers afterwards.
When researchers at the RBS accessed the files, they analyzed their contents before the information going offline. The results that were gotten provided an unprecedented insight into the inner working of Sony Pictures. The personal information of approximately 4000 past and present employees, passwords and executive salaries were leaked (Risk Based Security, 2014) . Additional leakages further revealed c urious practices that were occurring at Sony such as money orders that were used to purchase movie tickets that were then re-sold back to the staff at Sony. Moreover, the GOP went as far as threatening Sony employees and their families.
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How the attack was executed
According to Kurt Baumgartner (as cited in Alvarez 2014), a principal researcher at internet security firm Kaspersky Lab, “Not every corporation follows best practices or even prioritizes the security of the systems appropriately. It is going to require numerous lawsuits and additional financial losses before companies start to take attacks such as the one on Sony Pictures seriously.” Before Thanksgiving Day on Monday, the employees at Sony Pictures who tried to log into their computer were met with a graphic of a neon red skeleton that featured “hacked by” GOP in addition to the threat to release Sony’s data if they did not meet their unspecified requests (Risk Based Security, 2014) . The following weeks were marred with a variety of statements from GOP who later posted data from Sony online to a text-sharing site known as the Pastebin. The messages were then accompanied by links to download vast amounts of data from Sony Picture’s internal networks. However, after the first leaks were obtained by a reporter from Hollywood, the executives at Sony Pictures only acknowledged the theft of a large amount of confidential data (Alvarez, 2014) . Later on the same day, the FBI released a flash memo that warned about a malware used in the attack.
He further states that the malware that was used to harm Sony is called the Destover and acts as a backdoor, and has the capability of wiping disk drives and any Master Boot Record disks (Risk Based Security, 2014) . In short, the Destover can leak into any system and completely take over and gain access to any data stored within. Even though it does not target consumers sometimes issue for customers may arise out of the business of being hacked and sensitive data accessed.
The Kaspersky Lab further indicated that the sample of the malware used in the hacking showed traces of being signed by a valid digital certificate from Sony. The cybersecurity firm additionally stated that the Sony certificates that were stolen and also leaked by the attackers could be used to sign into other samples with malicious intents, and thus can further be used in other attacks (Alvarez, 2014) . Since the Sony digital certificates are trusted by security solutions, it was more comfortable and more useful for the attackers to hack into the system. In other words, the attackers leveraged the Sony trusted certificates to bypass whitelisting software and default-deny policies at Sony Pictures.
The Responsible Party
Most times attribution is hard when it comes to cases of cyber attacks because of the difficulty involved in tying digital forensics that is left behind to real-world actors. However, the leading theory in the situation on the Sony cyber attack was that the North Korean government was tied to it in some way (Levine & Forde, 2018) . On Wednesday of November 2014, the New York Times and the Washington Post indicated that some United States officials who were anonymous were pointing to North Korea. One of the officials stated that intelligence officials from the FBI believed with a 99 percent certainty that the hackers were working for the North Korean government. However, the U.S administration had some uncertainties on what to do with the information for they feared that no good outcome would eventually come from pointing fingers at North Korea as they are diplomatically isolated coupled with the sanctions that were in place.
Consequently, officials from North Korea denied any involvement in the attack even though they termed the attack as a righteous dead and further suggested that it may have been the work of supporters of the regime. The North Korean link was however speculated beforehand when tech news site, re/Code reported that U.S investigators were looking into the possibility of a link to North Korea (Levine & Forde, 2018) . After that, messages that were alleged to be from the hackers and eluded to the movie "The Interview" were reported. The messages indicated that Sony Pictures had to stop "the movie of terrorism" as they called it while invoking the 2001 Sept 11 attack on the U.S while threatening theatres that planned on showing the film. Even though technical details on the Sony Pictures attack was reported to have similarities to previous attacks on South Korean media institutions that were linked to North Korea, the American administration remained sceptical about the connection stating that most of the evidence that was publicized was circumstantial.
How Sony Picture Responded
After the attacks, Sony studio canceled their plans to release "The Interview” on that Wednesday after much of the significant theatres state that they will not show the film. Earlier in that week, a lawyer that represented Sony Pictures sent a letter to various media outlets that covered the documents that were leaked by the hackers stating that they should not download any future leaks and to destroy any stolen data that was in their hands (Alvarez, 2014) . However, the strategy did not have much influence on stopping outlets from reporting on the contents of the documents that they had. Moreover, Sony Pictures tried to block the distribution of the stolen data by hiring companies such as Entura International to efficiently remove the links for downloading the leaked information (Alvarez, 2014) . Additionally, Sony studio partnered with the FBI and Fire Eye, a cybersecurity firm to investigate the cyber breach.
The Gravity of the Situation
Even though various media outlets have been dominated by big retail hacks over the years, the cyber attack on Sony remains the most disruptive. The attack knocked down computer systems at the corporation which led to the fallout of the wholesale distribution of internal documents (Risk Based Security, 2014) . The result of the attack on Sony Pictures was far different from the company having to respond to the theft of credit card numbers. Various individuals within the cybersecurity community thus hoped that the attack on Sony acted as a wakeup call to many corporations to be on the look-out for their vulnerability to digital adversaries, regarding beefing up their current defenses and their backup capabilities (Levine & Forde, 2018) .
Additionally, many others become concerned about the precedent set by capitulating to the demands of the hackers to stop the release of the "The Interview." The attackers swiftly managed to get their way by controlling the conversation thereby leaving people to question what might happen if other hacking groups adopt similar tactics for advancing their agendas (Levine & Forde, 2018) . Moreover, many celebrities tweeted their concerns about what the attack meant for the future of free speech and artistic expression. Undeniably, this might be true since another studio reportedly pulled the plug on a film that was to be set in North Korea starring Steve Carrell.
Prevention of the Situation
To prevent attacks such as the Sony 2014 cyber attack, it is paramount for corporations to have cyber information sharing systems. Moreover, a robust and comprehensive security strategy that is mainly based on detailed risk assessments is crucial for every company. However, to minimize their vulnerability to destructive attacks such as the one that occurred Sony Pictures, companies should ensure that they have capable backups of essential data. Additionally, they should store the backup records with their unique security measures or in hard drives that do not have persistent network connections (Riddle, 2014) . Furthermore, corporations should restrict access to critical files to the highest practical degree by identifying those who readily needs the data and those who do not as a way of mitigating the risk of cyber intrusion and attack.
References
Alvarez, E. (2014, December 10). Sony Pictures hack; the whole story. Retrieved December 2018, from Engadget: https://www.engadget.com/2014/12/10/sony-pictures-hack-the-whole-story/
Levine, M., & Forde, K. (2018, September 06). DOJ announces charges against North Korean hacker for Sony, Wannacry cyber attacks. Retrieved December 2018, from ABC News: https://abcnews.go.com/US/doj-announce-charges-north-koreans-sony-hack-wannacry/story?id=57643239
Riddle, J. (2014, December 05). On the Sony Breach and How to Prepare for Destructive Cyber-Attacks. Retrieved December 2018, from Information Security: https://www.lbmcinformationsecurity.com/blog/sony-breach-prepare-cyber-attacks
Risk-Based Security. (2014, December 05). A Breakdown and Analysis of the December 2014 Sony Hack. Retrieved December 2018, from RBS: https://www.riskbasedsecurity.com/2014/12/a-breakdown-and-analysis-of-the-december-2014-sony-hack/
