Sony Defeated in Cyberwar
If there has ever been a question in your mind if there is a cyberwar, it should have been answered after the Sony attack. Sony has now agreed to the demands of the cybercriminals, who by the way have been linked to North Korea. Nation State sponsored cyber attacks, which is what has happened to Sony, is a cyber offensive against a specific target. The cyber offensive is very sophisticated and hard to detect, and the people committing the cyber crime will have safe harbor in the sponsoring nation, such as North Korea, which is considered to be one of the top cyber warfare actors in the world today.
It is difficult to believe that the demand from North Korea against Sony has been met and so quickly. The demand was not to show the movie, “The Interview”.
The cyber attackers only took 40 GB of data, which is basically a USB thumb drive. But in that 40 GB of data, there were; salary negotiations, personal employee information including criminal background checks and medical documentation for leaves of absences, salaries and Social Security Numbers. There was also unreleased movies and scripts.
The cyber attackers, who call themselves, Guardians of Peace GOP, not only took the Sony data, but destroyed the Sony digital network, with every computer being destroyed, by corrupting the Master Boot Record MBR of the hard drive. The MBR are the initial program steps that a computer takes when a user hits the on button. The GOP also destroyed the servers, so there was no email, and no digital phones. When the Sony employees arrived at work on the morning of November 24th , they found the below jpg., on their workstations.
Furthermore the GOP threatened 9-11 style attacks with the following warning message copied below from a posting board:
“Warning
We will clearly show it to you at the very time and places “The Interview” be shown, including the premiere, how bitter fate those who seek fun in terror should be doomed to.
Soon all the world will see what an awful movie Sony Pictures Entertainment has made.
The world will be full of fear.
Remember the 11th of September 2001.
We recommend you to keep yourself distant from the places at that time.
(If your house is nearby, you’d better leave.)
Whatever comes in the coming days is called by the greed of Sony Pictures Entertainment.
All the world will denounce the SONY.
More to come…”
Within twenty four days Sony capitulated. What a short digital war; the victors are the GOP and the losers are all of us whether we are connected or not.
