As you likely know by now, Sony Pictures has pulled the plug on a Christmas Day release of “The Interview” because of the rather epic hack and threats directed towards anyone who dares to show the film. According to some, the hack was carried out by North Korea, but that is almost secondary to the fact that Sony has decided to pull the plug on this film. In my view, this is a severe over reaction for the two reasons.
First, Sony got hacked because their network security was substandard and they ignored signs that they were a target as I pointed out here. In fact, I found this article that shows that Sony as an organization has been getting “pwned” by hackers since 2005. Thus, I submit that this is not the act of some super sophisticated group of hackers. Instead, it was likely a group of people with moderate amounts of skill who were able to walk in the metaphorical front door, seeing as it was wide open, and cause havoc. So while I feel sorry for Sony, they should of seen this coming and protected themselves against it. Related to this, Sony calls this hack “cyber-terrorism.” I have a problem with that term as these hackers simply embarrassed Sony by leaking some caustic e-mails and a script for the next James Bond movie among other things. They didn’t cause planes to crash nor did they shut down the power grid or anything like that as those are the sorts of things that I would associate with “cyber-terrorism.” So calling this hack “cyber-terrorism” seems to be an over the top attempt by Sony to play the victim card.
Second, whomever “The Guardians Of Peace” are, they have shown no sign that they are capable of carrying out the “9/11” style threats that they leveled against anyone who showed this film. Now I get that Sony was likely afraid of something similar to what happened when The Dark Knight Rises opened in Colorado. But that movie wasn’t cancelled when that incident took place. In fact, I would argue that Sony has set a very dangerous precedent by caving to this group who until very recently nobody has heard of as it will only embolden groups like it to do the same thing in the future, thus making others less safe.
What really needs to happen here is that “The Interview” needs to come out. People then need to see it so that Sony can send a collective “f**k you” to the people who did this. Why? Just take a look at the response to the Parliament Hill shootings not too long ago. As soon as it was practical, everyone from politicians to everyday people went to Parliament Hill to send this message to anyone who wanted to do something like that: We will not be intimidated, we will not bend, we will not break and we are not afraid. By over reacting, Sony has sent the opposite message by saying that they will be intimidated, they will bend, they will break and that they are afraid. I guarantee, this will come back to haunt us, all of us. Because there will be a next time, and it will be worse now that the evil doers out there who do things like this know exactly what buttons to push to get us to cave.
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This entry was posted on December 18, 2014 at 12:57 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Hacked, Sony. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Sony Pictures Cancels “The Interview” In Wake Of Hack & Threats…. Are They Over Reacting?
As you likely know by now, Sony Pictures has pulled the plug on a Christmas Day release of “The Interview” because of the rather epic hack and threats directed towards anyone who dares to show the film. According to some, the hack was carried out by North Korea, but that is almost secondary to the fact that Sony has decided to pull the plug on this film. In my view, this is a severe over reaction for the two reasons.
First, Sony got hacked because their network security was substandard and they ignored signs that they were a target as I pointed out here. In fact, I found this article that shows that Sony as an organization has been getting “pwned” by hackers since 2005. Thus, I submit that this is not the act of some super sophisticated group of hackers. Instead, it was likely a group of people with moderate amounts of skill who were able to walk in the metaphorical front door, seeing as it was wide open, and cause havoc. So while I feel sorry for Sony, they should of seen this coming and protected themselves against it. Related to this, Sony calls this hack “cyber-terrorism.” I have a problem with that term as these hackers simply embarrassed Sony by leaking some caustic e-mails and a script for the next James Bond movie among other things. They didn’t cause planes to crash nor did they shut down the power grid or anything like that as those are the sorts of things that I would associate with “cyber-terrorism.” So calling this hack “cyber-terrorism” seems to be an over the top attempt by Sony to play the victim card.
Second, whomever “The Guardians Of Peace” are, they have shown no sign that they are capable of carrying out the “9/11” style threats that they leveled against anyone who showed this film. Now I get that Sony was likely afraid of something similar to what happened when The Dark Knight Rises opened in Colorado. But that movie wasn’t cancelled when that incident took place. In fact, I would argue that Sony has set a very dangerous precedent by caving to this group who until very recently nobody has heard of as it will only embolden groups like it to do the same thing in the future, thus making others less safe.
What really needs to happen here is that “The Interview” needs to come out. People then need to see it so that Sony can send a collective “f**k you” to the people who did this. Why? Just take a look at the response to the Parliament Hill shootings not too long ago. As soon as it was practical, everyone from politicians to everyday people went to Parliament Hill to send this message to anyone who wanted to do something like that: We will not be intimidated, we will not bend, we will not break and we are not afraid. By over reacting, Sony has sent the opposite message by saying that they will be intimidated, they will bend, they will break and that they are afraid. I guarantee, this will come back to haunt us, all of us. Because there will be a next time, and it will be worse now that the evil doers out there who do things like this know exactly what buttons to push to get us to cave.
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This entry was posted on December 18, 2014 at 12:57 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Hacked, Sony. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.