The hacking scandal that has afflicted Sony Pictures has turned into a major disaster with implications that could ruin lucrative business relationships as well as lead to lawsuits. Sony was hacked by a mysterious entity that seemed more interest in embarrassing the company than extorting it. Thousands of social security numbers of employees have been leaked along with their salaries, unreleased films have been compromised at a potential cost of many millions of dollars and, perhaps most devastating to the suits in the corner offices, private E mails have been made public that reveal shocking comments by executives towards some of the most prominent people in the industry. The smart money is on North Korea as the culprit behind the sophisticated hack, that goes far beyond what most security experts have seen. Sony is about to release a comedy about a plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un- and the Dear Leader clearly doesn't think its funny. The North Koreans have denounced the film and called for Sony to suppress it. The studio's refusal to do so may have unleashed North Korea's intelligence services on it's computer systems. The Washington Post reports that the scandal has reached levels that is causing major agita among the top brass at Sony. In an industry that prides itself on keeping secrets, the cats are running out of the bag. Click here to read.
For extensive coverage of leaked E mails, click here for Gawker article.