Who Is Really To Blame For The Sony Pictures Hack?

Is a country that is often criticized for starving its citizens capable of hacking Sony Pictures?

Well, apparently.

Earlier this week Sony Pictures was officially shut down due to a cyber-attack. At first, some speculated that the North Korean government was responsible. It was thought that North Korea could be seeking revenge over Seth Rogen and James Franco's Kim Jong-un assassination movie, "The Interview." Now it appears that North Korea is set to be Sony's official perpetrator. But some people are wondering if some other organizations should take responsibility as well.

"Once a SS# has been verified to exist by HR it should never need to be stored in plain text like that. When will companies learn?" comments Sighing on Gizmodo.

"The problem isn't with them keeping the SSN. The problem is with companies who treat it as a password that only you have, when it blatantly isn't," responded Andrew Timson.

"Did they learn nothing from before? At least this time it's not the customers being exposed (I hope), but I don't see a company that doesn't keep their data as secure or more secure than their customer's data as sensible," says Dekai350.

All three of these comments are examples of people who think that perhaps Sony should be looked at less like the victim the case of their hack. It's an understandable feeling, especially considering that personal information of former employees was reportedly exposed as a part of the hack.

One columnist at The Daily Beast however believes that the issue is not just Sony Pictures or North Korea. It's the U.S. Government. Specifically, it's the U.S. Government's lack of legal action against the Chinese hackers who are responsible for stolen intellectual property and corporate information. Beijing even managed to cause Google to partially withdraw from the country.

"Washington has chosen to allow Chinese predatory behavior to continue. The Kim regime-and certainly others-have surely noticed the open door," writes Gordon G. Chang. "No wonder somebody using North Korean code staged a raid on Sony Pictures."

Although Sony Pictures has yet to release their official statement blaming North Korea, perhaps this is a lesson for the company and the U.S. Government to take cyber-attacks more seriously. 

Tags
sony pictures
North Korea
cyber-attack
world news
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