Sony, North Korea and 'The Interview': When lack of principle meets personal cowardic

[Team Sergeant]

Come-on, they're just "actors", they only "play" tough guys. We'd expect no less from hollywood.

Zev Chafets, well done! All rounds on target buddy!


Sony, North Korea and 'The Interview': When lack of principle meets personal cowardice

By Zev Chafets
·Published December 18, 2014
·FoxNews.com

The news is out. “The Interview” will not be coming to a Cineplex near you on Christmas Day. Sony, the studio that produced Seth Rogen’s $44 million comedy about the assassination North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un has dropped it.

Sony co-chairman Amy Pascal originally greenlighted this film. But as of today, she and her corporate bosses are the bitches of North Korea’s Dear Leader--the only guy in Hollywood with the power to red light a holiday blockbuster.

Kim didn’t even have to come to Hollywood to kill the film. An anonymous threat over the Internet was sufficient to shut it down. Just to make sure, he sent copies to Regal Entertainment, Cinemark, Carmike Cinemas and AMC—the companies who own most of the movie theaters in the U.S. and to the people who live near these theaters, any one of which could turn into World Trade Center II.

America’s enemies are connoisseurs of weakness, and they have discovered the rusty link where a lack of principle meets personal cowardice.

Before cancelling, the movie folks checked with Washington. If they thought their political contributions bought them some clout with Obama, they are now disabused of that.

“We are currently checking a range of options” says a National Security council spokesperson. The FBI let it be known that it is investigating. In Hollywood lingo, the issue is under development.

Some commentators are calling the shutdown of a major motion picture by foreign enemies an unprecedented act against American freedom of expression. But that is far from true, as Flemming Rose demonstrates in his recently published book, “The Tyranny of Silence."

In 2005, Rose, an editor at the Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, published a series of caricatures lampooning the idea that Islam is a religion of peace. One drawing depicted Muhammad with a lit bomb on head. Rose’s purpose was to test whether Danish Muslim citizens were ready to accept the same kind of satirical criticism as their fellow citizens.

The answer was no. Islam forbids making images of Muhammad, no matter what is on his head. This is religious law, and since the courts in Copenhagen weren’t about to enforce it, Danish Imams launched an appeal to the faithful around the world.

The masses responded with pious alacrity. The Danish Embassy in Damascus was torched. The Danish consulate in Beirut was sacked. Mobs rioted from North Africa to Pakistan, attacking churches and individual Christians. Dozens, perhaps hundreds, died.

cont:

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/...nal-cowardice/

[Badger52]

Pretty soon the money men will want a script vetted by the UN.

[MtnGoat]

I agree with your statement that SONY are being bitches. Hello Sony has a Tech Division, why not use them to hit back at DPRK? I mean do something like Anonymous would do. Hell I bet they have effect tech heads that are apart of that Group. I would also get everyone out there that helps Anonymous to do a DDoS attacks against DPRK.

Sony and our Government are sending the wrong message around the world by not showing this movie. All of them are stupid for not releasing the movie. Sony should have been acting fast from the start. Paying for Credit card and credit card fraud protection and insurance for everyone that had PII stolen. Telling everyone to change every password out there. Everyone that had their credentials stolen are or have been changed so I would drop the company doing all payroll, security, etc that had anything to do with those credentials. Pay out those contracts, but look elsewhere. It's Cyber so just go off-online for now and use an air gap network as needed. An air gap network isn't 100%, heck it's at best 80%. But they work, Human error is the biggest issue.

If this is how our Cooperate America is going to react, then our Government best get their shoot group tighten up. Because we suck right now.

[The Reaper]

Originally Posted by DocIllinois

Agreed. This sends a message that we'll roll over to any dictator who threatens a terrorist act through his moron cronies.

I weep for the geo-strategic mess that the next POTUS will be cleaning up.

Or making worse.

TR

[Rumblyguts]

This as just a money decision, right? My bet is that Sony's insurance company was whispering in its ear about potential lawsuits from anyone injured.

While Sony's move comes across as weak in terms of international power/politics, it also shows the power of litigation and the "your fault" mentality of much of the public.

[Roguish Lawyer]

It wasn't really Sony, it was the theaters who did it. Sony had no economic choice at that point, really.

[Box]

...maybe those theaters can run some Michael Moore documentaries in place of The Interview

[The Reaper]

Originally Posted by Roguish Lawyer

It wasn't really Sony, it was the theaters who did it. Sony had no economic choice at that point, really.

How about giving the movie away to broadcast and cable TV, and airdropping 100,000 DVD copies over North Korea per week till the threats stop.

Or making a movie about a real insurrection to overthrow the Kim dynasty, as in a "how to" video, and distributing it to the population there?

Or a movie about Kim banging goats.

TR

[NF_NYC]

Originally Posted by Rumblyguts

My bet is that Sony's insurance company was whispering in its ear about potential lawsuits from anyone injured.

This.

I don't think Sony wants to lose tens of millions of dollars by canceling a movie release and damaging their reputation even further. However, I can see insurance companies scaring Sony into doing this and Sony trying to avoid huge lawsuits from the public. What are the chances that someone can watch The Interview and want a little cash from a lawsuit claiming that he suffered emotional stress while watching the video because he feared for his life? As stupid as that sounds, it wouldn't surprise me if thousands of Americans stooped that low. Isn't it possible and wouldn't it be catastrophic for Sony?

[Team Sergeant]

An North Korea did it without firing a shot.

We are a nation of cowards.



Personally I think it's time for a 1000 missile Tomahawk strike against North Korea all targeting the dictator himself.

[DIYPatriot]

If Sony truly cared for their customers/moviegoers then they never would've released their remake of Annie. Who the hell remakes Annie? On a serious note - Sony's decision to cave in to the so-called Guardians of Peace doesn't strike me as one that came out of fear for their customers and future lawsuits stemming from their claims. Based on this article, to me, it would seem that they're mitigating their risks in fear of future cyber attacks and are in some serious CYA mode. Apart from being cowards and caving to North Korea, I feel that they're terrified of losing money and this is what they have decided is their best option- which sucks, because this makes North Korea look like chess masters while we're busy trying to figure out the game of checkers.

They only had a $60 million policy to guard against any cyber-related attacks. They'll lose well beyond that amount and their policy doesn't renew until April 2015. They literally cannot afford another attack. Not only is it bad for their bottom line, it's horrible for their brand and future investors. Very early in my career, my first team lead told me that if I ever had to ask the question, "Why don't they..." or "Why do they..." - I could almost always answer "because of money". How much do you want to bet that future productions are being reconsidered, now?

Aside from the obvious, Sony faces potential lawsuits by their own employees and clients because they failed to protect their personal information (SSNs, Financial/Payroll info, etc). On top of this, Sony has several tier 1 systems that were taken down and they are still down. Once Sony recovers their systems, they still have to prove they can handle future attacks - not only to save face, but because of regulations. They will be fined (and that's the least of their worries). Apart from lost revenue (and possibly lost future deals), the recovery and technology risk mitigation costs stemming from this hack will be enormous.

I'm betting that other big time businesses are doing a serious gut-check right now. If the JP Morgan attack didn't get that ball rolling, then this should. I would imagine that AIG and other insurance companies will revise and increase policy prices over time as well - now you know why popcorn at the theater is so damn expensive. It's bad enough that one single attack cost our gov't over $4 million in credit report monitoring for the affected individuals. According to this report (graph on page 2), our govt institutions recorded 61k cyber attacks in FY 2013.

The Sony attack simply cast a spotlight on something that has been happening for quite some time but most have been too busy supersizing their value meals, taking selfies and watching kitten videos on youtube to even give a damn.

Consider this:

In September 2014, Robert Anderson, executive assistant director of the Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch of the FBI told the Senate Homeland Security Committee that if a federal department believes it hasn’t been hacked, it is likely that they are simply unaware of the hack.

When Senator Coburn asked for a list of all the government hacks the panelists were aware of, he acknowledged that they may have to be discussed in a closed Senate hearing.

Furthermore, the list below does not include the large number of private-sector failures. Nevertheless, the seriousness and number of known U.S. government cybersecurity failures undercut the argument for a government-led regulatory approach to cybersecurity.

Click here for more on the affected gov't agencies. The list is quite extensive and chronicles the 5Ws of each attack, but only includes the major players such as the IRS, Healthcare.gov, CIA, Fannie Mae, DOD, USACE, USN/Marine Intranet, etc

For a list of major private sector attacks in 2014 click here. Lost in all this was a major attack against KeyPoint Govt Solutions, who conducts federal background checks and was brought in because their predecessor had been previously hacked. It's being reported that as many as 49k federal employees have been affected.

I guess my point is that this might finally serve as one of those "Oh shit" moments reminiscent of how Hurricane Katrina forced changes in data/disaster recovery among financial institutions and other govt & private sectors. Maybe, just maybe someone will finally see that this is for real. Or not.

[Roguish Lawyer]

I wish there was a like button.

[Box]

I just happy that we still haven't had to listen to an apology for our American arrogance...

[Badger52]

Originally Posted by Billy L-bach

I just happy that we still haven't had to listen to an apology for our American arrogance...

yet.

Another Sony COA.

[MtnGoat]

Originally Posted by The Reaper

How about giving the movie away to broadcast and cable TV, and airdropping 100,000 DVD copies over North Korea per week till the threats stop.

Or making a movie about a real insurrection to overthrow the Kim dynasty, as in a "how to" video, and distributing it to the population there?

Or a movie about Kim banging goats.

TR

I like your thinking TR!!!

Send the movie over satellite based system into NK.