10 years later: The Sony Photos hack

Key Takeaways

  • Films get leaked: Sony workers confronted leaks of unreleased movies like Fury, resulting in piracy and main setbacks to studio plans.
  • Inner firm data begins leaking: Hackers revealed worker salaries, private IDs, and emails, impacting Sony’s status and privateness.
  • Gender disparities uncovered: E-mail dumps revealed Jennifer Lawrence’s pay hole, sparking a cultural counting on gender inequality in Hollywood.



On Monday, November 24, 2014, workers at Sony Photos arrived on the film studio able to get to work, however quickly turned clear it will not be a day like every other. Their computer systems had been all down, taken over by some sort of malware, displaying a pink cranium on their screens. There was additionally a message, from a gaggle calling themselves the Guardians of Peace. “That is only the start,” the hackers said, warning that “we’ve obtained all of your inside information,” threatening to launch all of it. It will turn into some of the infamous hacks of all time.

With their whole pc system compromised, Sony was in bother, and the motivation behind the hack remained a thriller. It took till later within the week for experiences to emerge that the corporate, and the US authorities, suspected North Korea was behind the hack, and it was all about Sony’s then-upcoming Seth Rogen and James Franco comedy The Interview.


Within the movie, the duo play a pair of tabloid journalists who get to go to North Korea, and are recruited by the CIA to assassinate the real-life chief Kim Jong Un. That premise, by which Kim meets a fiery ugly dying, was evidently a bridge too far for the North Korean dictator, and the nation set about attacking Sony over it in an effort to cease the film’s launch. 10 years later, the reverberations from the hack are nonetheless being felt in Hollywood and past.

Films get leaked

The hackers throw open the floodgates for on-line pirates

Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash

 


Within the days following their pc techniques being taken down, the workers at Sony Photos had been nonetheless attempting to find out the impact of the hack on the corporate. The entire system wanted to be rebuilt, and most had been nonetheless working with out computer systems. Most had been additionally nonetheless puzzled in regards to the supply of the assault, and the motivation for it, although few anticipated what got here subsequent.

The primary main hit to the corporate following the hack itself, was the discharge on-line of a number of Sony Photos releases. The Brad Pitt movie Fury was found being downloaded on-line, regardless of nonetheless being in theaters. That was adopted by Annie, Mr. Turner, Nonetheless Alice, and To Write Love On Her Arms, all of which had but to be launched formally. Together with the piracy being a serious hit to the studio’s plans for the movies, it was additionally the surest signal that the hackers meant enterprise.

Inner firm data begins leaking

The hackers start their doc dumps, revealing the confidential inside workings of the studio

William Dafoe in a suit.

Sony


As if the film leaks weren’t dangerous sufficient, the following week the hackers started dumping mounds of inside data and paperwork they’d gathered by means of the hack. It began with the leak of Sony Photos worker salaries, together with the extravagant bonuses earned by high executives. That was adopted by quite a few different information dumps, together with scans of films stars’ private IDs, inside emails from workers criticizing the studio’s Adam Sandler films, and extra.

It began with the leak of Sony Photos worker salaries


On December 5, 2014, lower than two weeks after the hack, the Guardians of Peace issued a scarier menace on-line, writing, “Many issues past creativeness will occur at many locations of the world. Our brokers discover themselves act in crucial locations. Please signal your identify to object the false of the corporate on the e-mail tackle beneath in case you don’t wish to undergo injury. For those who don’t, not solely you however your loved ones can be in peril.”

That was adopted by extra doc dumps, together with emails from studio head Amy Pascal by which she referred to Angelina Jolie as a “minimally gifted spoiled brat,” and emails by which Pascal and producer Scott Rudin made racist jokes about US president Barack Obama, for which they publicly apologized.

Gender disparities uncovered

Inner emails reveal the pay gaps between actors and actresses, resulting in an enormous cultural reckoning

26 tech fails that ruined people s lives image 19
Lions Gate


Amongst all the e-mail dumps, which included loads of salacious data for Hollywood gossip blogs, one huge story emerged. It was to do with the pay hole between female and male film stars. It was found within the emails that Jennifer Lawrence, scorching off an Oscar win for Finest Actress in Silver Linings Playbook, was paid lower than her male within the movie American Hustle. Lawrence would later touch upon the revelation, explaining that she had failed as a negotiator, writing in Lena Dunham’s Lenny newsletter, “On the time, that appeared like a fantastic concept, till I noticed the payroll on the Web and realized each man I used to be working with undoubtedly didn’t fear about being ‘troublesome’ or ‘spoiled.'” This all led to an enormous cultural reckoning, as different feminine stars started calling out the inequality.

The Interview lastly will get launched on-line

The primary day-and-date streaming launch occurred because of the hack


After weeks of drama surrounding the hack and The Interview, the film was lastly launched, however not in as broad a type as anticipated. As a consequence of a brand new menace from the hackers, any theaters bought chilly toes. “We are going to clearly present it to you on the very time and places The Interview be proven, together with the premiere, how bitter destiny those that search enjoyable in terror needs to be doomed to. Quickly all of the world will see what an terrible film Sony Photos Leisure has made. The world can be filled with worry. Keep in mind the eleventh of September 2001. We advocate you to maintain your self distant from the locations at the moment,” the hackers wrote.

It was, in impact, the primary main day-and-date streaming launch


Because of this, America’s greatest movie show chains determined they might not be screening the movie. Sony Photos determined to tug the broad launch of the film, finally opting to launch it for VOD leases on-line, and in no matter smaller theaters and chains agreed to display screen it. It was, in impact, the primary main day-and-date streaming release .

An enduring legacy

From conversations about race and gender, to cybersecurity, to movie distribution, the Sony hack had actual impression

sony reportedly building oculus rift like vr headset for the ps4 image 1

Whereas time has moved on from the Sony Photos hack, there was a long-lasting impression. Conversations about race, and about gender disparities had been boiling underneath the floor in Hollywood for many years, however the data leaked within the hack amplified these conversations and commenced forcing change. Studios started committing to stronger range objectives, and a stream of feminine stars started calling out Hollywood for paying ladies lower than males. The dialog across the pay hole even unfold exterior Hollywood, with ladies all around the world sharing the methods they’ve confronted gender disparity throughout the workforce. It definitely bought many individuals to suppose twice about what they write of their emails.


The Sony hack helped to usher in a really totally different world for leisure

The hack additionally pressured studios, and plenty of different corporations, to higher acknowledge the menace posed by hackers in a web-based world, with a lot stronger investments in cybersecurity, although there have nonetheless been many notable hacks of enormous firms within the decade since. On the subject of movie manufacturing, the legacy of the Sony hack is a bit much less apparent, but it surely’s notable that within the years since, the massive studios have turn into extra risk-averse in terms of doubtlessly politically controversial titles. For the Hollywood studios, the discharge of The Interview on-line and in theaters concurrently marked a sea change for the way forward for movie distribution. Whereas the hackers had pressured Sony’s hand in that case, it wasn’t too lengthy earlier than day-and-date releases turned extra frequent for large, mainstream films, and the COVID-19 pandemic solely poured extra gas on the fireplace. The Sony hack helped to usher in a really totally different world for leisure.


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