Just who is responsible for the massive hack that brought one of the world’s largest entertainment factories to its knees? There is a lot of speculation today whether Sony will make a statement pinning the blame on North Korea.
“Sony Pictures will officially name North Korea as the source of a hacking attack that has exposed sensitive files and brought down its corporate network last week,” Re/code reported this morning. “An announcement could come as soon as today.”
However, other news outlets, including Huffington Post, are reporting that “a representative for Sony told The Hollywood Reporter‘s Matthew Belloni that Re/code’s story is wrong, and that the company will not be making a statement on the attack.”
And other sources, including Wired, say the chances that North Korea did it are slim indeed: “The likely culprits behind the Sony breach are hacktivists—or disgruntled insiders—angry at the company’s unspecified policies.”
The cyber attack snagged files that included employee salaries, production plans and the video files of at least five movies, including Fury starring Brad Pitt and a remake of Annie. What’s even crazier is the alleged motivation behind the attack. North Korea has been trying to stop Sony from releasing the Seth Rogen/James Franco movie The Interview about two American journalists who are recruited by the CIA to assassinate Dear Leader Kim Jong-Un. The movie was set to be released in October, but has already been pushed back to Christmas Day due to the complications with North Korea, which declared it an “act of war.”
Business Insider has collected “9 Crazy Details” about the hack that sound straight out of a Rogen/Franco screenplay, including an $800,000 salary discrepancy between a man and woman with equal jobs; that Sony employees had to use pens, paper and fax to communicate due to the breach; and that the script for a new pilot from the creator of Breaking Bad was one of the files leaked.
Below, the trailer for the new Rogen/Franco comedy about North Korea:
