the Sony Pictures hack (2014)
loresecuritygovernance & risk
The November 2014 breach in which attackers calling themselves Guardians of Peace destroyed much of Sony Pictures Entertainment's infrastructure with wiper malware and published executives' email, unreleased films, salaries and employee medical records - alongside threats tied to the studio's comedy about assassinating North Korea's leader.
The FBI attributed it to North Korea, an attribution disputed by some researchers at the time and largely accepted since. It rewrote several rulebooks at once: destructive attacks became a board-level scenario rather than a theoretical one, leaked internal email became a weapon aimed at reputations rather than systems, and the film's altered release turned a corporate breach into a question about coercion and speech. Employees suing over their exposed data established that a breach injures the workforce, not only the company.
Also known as: guardians of peace, the interview, wiper attack