In a series of cyberattacks that were first noticed on Nov. 24, a mysterious group calling itself the Guardians of Peace stole and subsequently leaked personal and medical information from every Sony Pictures employee, revealed scads of confidential internal information, left the company technologically crippled, and issued vague demands that “our request be met.” That last one increasingly appears to center on The Interview, a James Franco–Seth Rogen comedy about killing North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, which Sony is now offering theaters the choice of not showing. (As of today, the four largest movie-theater chains say they won’t screen the movie.) We don’t yet know exactly who is behind this cyberassault. What’s clear, however, is that it represents a wake-up call that’s been coming for a long time.
The Sony hack isn’t important because of its technological sophistication, which is impressive but probably not particularly innovative. While neither Sony nor the FBI has released the exact details, so far there is little to suggest that this was some brilliant, unprecedented maneuver on the order of the NSA’s still-astounding StuxNet, a virus which managed to sneak its way into the isolated nuclear facilities of Iran and sabotage them. What’s remarkable is the sheer destruction leveled at Sony and its employees. For perhaps the first time, a major American company really did suffer a worst-case cyberassault scenario.
As someone who suffered through and reviled the hysteria of the post-9/11 era, I want to stress that most hackers, from script kiddies to the members of Anonymous, are not terrorists. The Guardians of Peace are different. With yesterday’s threat of violence against theaters showing The Interview—“The world will be full of fear. Remember the 11th of September 2001.”—I don’t know what else to call them.
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