Recently, a Hollywood studio was the target of a hacker attack, which reportedly came from North Korea. The hack saw the theft of many celebrities’ private information, including Judd Apatow, Rebel Wilson, and, as has now been revealed, Sylvester Stallone.
The leak was quite serious in some regards, from what has been publicly revealed. The information stolen by the hackers includes social security numbers, home and e-mail addresses, as well as various financial details. Not only that, but apparently the archives accessed were quite extensive – some of the information dated as far back as 1955, according to reports.
If the information about the attack’s origin turns out to be true, this could turn out to have a political flavor to it. North Korea recently expressed disappointment with an upcoming film produced by Sony – “The Interview” – due to its premise, in which the CIA tries to assassinate Kim Jong-Un. It’s suspected that the hack was in retaliation to the film, although this has not been confirmed yet, and no North Korea officials have made any public statements either.
However, investigations have apparently revealed that pieces of the code used in the attack matched code that was seen previously when North Korea was confirmed to be attacking South Korean banks. This is a strong indication that the attack either originated in North Korea, or in the least, the country has supplied the attackers with the tools they’ve used to carry it out.
Investigations are still ongoing, and agencies on board include the FBI and even National Security. According to people close to the investigation however, North Korea is actually not the only country being looked at as a possible suspect. It’s not known which other countries/parties are currently being considered, as most of the investigation is being kept confidential, as can be expected.
The attack still hasn’t affected Sony’s plans for their film however, as “The Interview” is expected to release as scheduled on Christmas. It’s not known if North Korea – or whoever else was behind that attack – has anything else planned for the upcoming release. This isn’t the first time Sony have been the target of such an attack though, so it’s likely that they will be able to handle any further attempts much more adequately, especially with national security experts on board. However, it’s probably the first case in which the studio has been targeted for political reasons, and by an organization very likely tied to an external government, which certainly makes things slightly more complicated for the studio. It remains to be seen if the situation has been resolved or if there’s more to come around Christmas when the film hits the screen.