Sony Hack 2014: An Email to Remember

Spiderman, The Karate Kid, Stuart Little, Charlie’s Angels, Ghostbusters, and Hotel Transylvania are some of the iconic franchises brought to life by Sony Pictures entertainment. Sony has produced many other movies still shining in its hall of fame but one day their world went upside down when everything and anything present in the database of this multibillion-dollar company was out for the world to see. Emails from professional to personal, salaries, budgets, IP addresses, passwords, employees’ personal details, and unreleased films were being sold to journalists for pennies on the dollar. A terrifying time for the company, where their reputation was being dragged through the mud with a threat of a terrorist attack looming over their head. An incident in 2014, which shook the United States of America to its core. 

On 24th November 2014, an anonymous sony employee posted on Reddit that their computers had wiped off most of their data and were left with a threatening message by a group calling themselves the “Guardians of Peace” to meet their demands or all their dirty laundry will be exposed for the world to see one megabyte at a time. Soon after all hell broke loose as controversial emails, unreleased films and password-protected files were out in the open. Information was being released on the daily from personal details to top-secret projects to awaiting projects. Scott Rudin, an American producer, and Amy Pascal, chairperson for the motion pictures group, were pushed into a difficult situation as their emails revealed insensitive comments including Angelina Jolie being “a minimally talented spoilt brat,” and racist characterization of ex-President Barack Obama. Other emails revealed a screenplay for the James Bond film Spectre, the end of “The Amazing Spiderman” film series with the sacking of their lead, Andrew Garfield, and many others. And all of this was just the tip of the iceberg, a small part of the larger situation.

On December 8th, 2014, fifteen days after the leak had begun the “GOP” revealed their disapproval of the upcoming controversial comedy film of the time starring James Franco and Seth Rogen, “The Interview”. The film was a satirical work about two journalists hired by the CIA to assassinate the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un. “Stop immediately showing the movie of terrorism which can break the regional peace and cause the War!” said the alleged hackers in one of their messages. Another message claimed that those who watch the movie will meet a “bitter fate” and added, “remember 11th September 2001”. The company decided to shelve the film, which was supposed to release on 25th December after getting pressure from its corporate parent in Japan and theatre owners to drop the film. This move was met with criticism by many, including President of the time, Barack Obama. “Imagine if producers and distributors and others start engaging in self-censorship because they don’t want to offend the sensibilities of somebody whose sensibilities probably need to be offended,” Obama said on 16th December. “That’s not who we are.” On 24th December Sony officially reversed its decision and released the film on independent theatre and online platforms.

The FBI concluded on December 19th that it, “has enough information to conclude that the North Korean government is responsible for these actions.” But the publicly released information left the security experts unconvinced. The National Security Agency (NSA) claimed in January that they were directly observed North Korea’s hacking activities and held them responsible for the Sony hack but releasing the information would compromise their access to the country’s network. The American Government has since held North Korea as the main suspect but North Korea continued to deny all responsibility.

A comedy film starring two of the most acclaimed Hollywood actors of the time meant to be nothing more than another source of income for a well-established production house, a mere source of entertainment for the public turned into a national threat, which left the whole company in disarray. The Department of Homeland Security of the country claimed that there was “no credible intelligence to indicate an active plot against movie theaters within the United States,” but there was no backing down from the chaos that had already unfolded.