Slashdot Mirror
Reaction To the Sony Hack Is 'Beyond the Realm of Stupid'
rossgneumann writes North Korea may really be behind the Sony hack, but we're still acting like idiots. Peter W. Singer, one of the nations foremost experts on cybersecurity, says Sony's reaction has been abysmal. "Here, we need to distinguish between threat and capability—the ability to steal gossipy emails from a not-so-great protected computer network is not the same thing as being able to carry out physical, 9/11-style attacks in 18,000 locations simultaneously. I can't believe I'm saying this. I can't believe I have to say this."
I just have to wonder if it's not just a PR stunt.
These kind of threats from hackers does indeed sound unbelievable. Hacking a pc and setting up a terrorist strike are quite different skill sets.
Am i the only one wondering if this is just a hoax from Sony/the authorities to make people change their stance on the hacks? In the beginning everybody was like "serves them right". Now everybody is like "Omg, poor Sony, i would watch the movie if i could".
These threats seem like the best thing that could happen to them after the hack. I'm kind of wondering if it isn't a bit too convenient.
What can be explained as a propaganda campaign. Expect this controversial piece of fine art to reach you a way or the other.
---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
I heard it once said to never let a serious crisis go to waste.
As soon as I heard this story, I realized it's not Sony Pictures giving in to threats to an AMC in Des Moines - It's likely Sony Pictures execs giving in to threats to themselves and their families: "If you release this movie we'll kill your children."
Of course I doubt NK has the reach to pull off those threats, but pretty chilling nonetheless...
Here's your main reason:
If ONE person is injured/killed within a 10 mile radius of a theater and the person doing the killing proclaims any notion of it being done because of the release of the movie, the relatives of the one shot will sue Sony for millions of dollars due to the release of the film that Sony KNEW could unleash terrorism. Imagine if it happened at 5 locations? What about one nutjob in one theater ala the Batman movie a few years ago? Sony would be put at fault for blatantly disregarding public safety by knowingly releasing a film. It's the same reason newspapers won't print an image of Mohammed or that South Park had to pull an episode that was going to show Mohammed.
Hyper-sensitivity to everything for fear of litigation.
Nothing else would feed the 24 hour news cycle.
I've been saying this from the get-go, Sony should not be coddled like they are the victim. This hack went on for months and probably for years they've been hiring the cheapest sysadmins overseas and buying 'solutions' from companies "well reviewed" in NetworkWorld (or whatever sponsored magazines middle management gets) to implement on their network that in the end didn't do squat.
Instead of being coddled, they should be fined for aiding and abetting and breaking privacy laws.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
One local theater chain is doing something about this:
They replaced the scheduled times of The Interview with a Team America sing-along.
Sony and the other theater chains have really screwed the US (and the West in general.) They caved in. NK doesn't have a monopoly on hacking, and in the future, this has emboldened every blackhat group worldwide because they know that they can not just breach a company, but actively control what that company does.
Going into tinfoil hat territory, I wonder if one of the hackers got some dirt on someone high up at Sony (and/or the theater chains) and was blackmailing them with it, so Sony used the NK thing as a way to pull the movie.
Regal Cinema et al. are not really worried about terror strikes. Muslim terrorists have made threats against various movies for decades and it hasn't stopped anything from being shown, and this is from groups that have proven experience blowing things up.
What these companies are in fact scared shitless is the kind of cyberattack that Sony suffered. As bad as Sony security might have been, I guarantee it was heads and shoulders above what any of these theater chains have in place. Sony was able to shrug off millions in damages, but for AMC it could be lights out. At the very least it would beat out the profits of showing a mediocre comedy. This is why they're scared to show the interview - concerns about "terror attacks" are a smokescreen.
You don't do that, you pick the useful idiots, provoke them a bit and then treat them as dangerous.And even if they are dangerous who are they gonna go after? Hackers have all the info on sony execs, but who really owns it? Who really dictate its policies? PHBs make insane amount of money not because they are worth them, they do because they follow the rules of the system.
---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
Either that or the hackers have far more damaging data on Sony exec's. Evidence that could land them in jail perhaps?
Personally I vote for it being a PR ploy by Sony to bolster ticket sales of what was otherwise sure to be a box-office flop
I think, if you actually read what the GP wrote, you'll see that he is expressing the same opinion. But let me tell you about how it is in my home country, Denmark:
- Nobody carries fire arms, except some criminals. In fact, most police officers aren't armed either.
- Gun shots are being fired so rarely that it makes the headlines when it happens. I don't actually recall last time that happened.
- School massacres? What is that?
In fact, one can argue that since nobody carries firearms, even the criminals don't feel they have to; they are not likely to be shot when they are 'at work'. You know, it isn't because Danes are particularly good-natured, or because we are a homogenous society; it's just that no firearms means less risk of gun related violence. It may be that you prefer to pay the price for everybody having high-powered guns, but if you argue that it somehow makes your country safer, you'll just end up looking silly. Again, you may prefer looking silly to the truth, but hey, that's your call.
In the article, the Peter Singer states, "Someone killed 12 people and shot another 70 people at the opening night of Batman: The Dark Knight [Rises]. They kept that movie in the theaters. You issue an anonymous cyber threat that you do not have the capability to carry out? We pulled a movie from 18,000 theaters."
In some ways, the comparison between the response to this current threat against movie theaters and the rampage that happened 2012 shooting in Aurora, Colorado is appropriate. Both target movie theaters and the people in them. But that's where it ends.
The Aurora shooting has gone down in history as an unforeseeable tragedy the fault of which lay entirely with the shooter. Everyone said, "This was very sad," and no one's expecting any victims' civil suits to win anything.
In fairly extreme contrast, ***IF*** Sony were to allow the movie to be shown in theaters and ***IF*** someone attacked a movie theater for any reason relating to the showing of the movie, then Sony would be very publicly acknowledged as having fault in the harm done to theater-goers and would be sued out of existence.
Everything in this decision has to do with LIABILITY. Even if the probability is extremely low, the potential liability is astronomical. It doesn't make financial sense for Sony to allow the movie to be shown.
Aside: Notice who the puppets and the puppet-masters are here. Those making the threats hold the strings, but they're not playing Sony. They're playing the American public. They know that the American public are so unhappy with their opportunities to be super-rich that they see legal liability as one of their few chances to get MILLIONS! As such, the nation is extremely risk-averse thus thoroughly negating out espoused resolve to not be susceptible to terroristic threats.
To be cliche, the enemy is us.
China is sick of NK too, they prop up the regime because the last thing they want to deal with is 20 million or so pouring over their border. South Korea doesn't want to deal with that either - reunification is the last thing they want.
North Korea continues to exist simply because nobody wants to step up and feed the people that the Kim's have been starving for generations.
Don't confuse that with "China would totally get in a nuclear war with the USA because of a movie that made fun of Dear Leader (tm)", which people seem to do.
Being shot by the homeowner is the single biggest fear among would-be intruders, ranking higher than being caught by police.
Unless, of course, you're drunk, forgot your keys and try to break into your own house. A guy who broke into the wrong house that he thought was his own by smashing the patio door got shot once after being repeatedly warned by the homeowner to leave. Nothing worse than waking up in the drunk tank with a bullet wound in the chest.
They killed North Korea in a previous movie
Team America: World Police
They impaled Kim Jong Il
And revealed it was a cockroach inside his head
And that Kim Jong Il hired the Muslims to do 9/11. And Kim got false info to Hans Blix to lie to UN that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
Yet no backlash
This isn't North Korea hacks at all. Arin.net last info was NK has 32 non firewalled IPS in NK.
On torchat, tor hacked forums, its old antisec/remnants of lulsec anons having fun. Some of the same that dropped PlayStation network for almost a month and got everyone's user/pass and name/dox. They left backdoors and such.
Plus one way in was an unlatched older version of sshd. Even a script kiddy can get root on old sshd.
Its trolling. Even encyclopediadramatica article and forums are laughing at anonymous got Sony to stop a movie premiere.
BTW the entire script along with 15 other movies in future were copied and on torrent now. Plus 3 movies and screeners.
They also have the move the interview screener, they are releasing on Christmas.