Question: Search for a company, school, or person that has been the RECENT target of a network or system intrusion? What information was targeted? Was the attack successful? If so, what changes
were made to ensure that this vulnerability was controlled? If not, what mechanisms were in-place to protect against the intrusion?

POST:

A network intrusion is a type of hacking attack. These intrusions can either be internally performed by an individual within the organization or someone external. One of the biggest intrusion was the hacking of Sony Pictures Entertainment on 2014 October. This happened on a Monday, a day before thanksgiving when the employees logged into their systems they were greeted with a graphic image of a neon red skeleton indicating that their systems were hacked by the Guardians of Peace followed by a threat later that night indicating that they would expose all the confidential data to public if certain requirements were not met.

What information was targeted?

The hackers stole the data and a huge amount of confidential information from the Hollywood studio and posted them online. They also sold those data to different journalists and various cybercriminals. These data were sent to the employees by the hackers as a link to download a huge amount of data and were used to threaten the employees. By targetting the confidential photos of each person they were, in turn, targetting the people whose data they had breached. The hackers also published unreleased movies, which were stored in the Sony hard disk to several torrents trackers. They also published about 47,426 SSN numbers to the public which was a very huge impact. This also caused people to file a lawsuit against Sony Pictures entertainment. The data was not only stolen, but some of it was also even destroyed.

Was the attack successful?

The attack was quite disruptive making it successful in hacking the computer systems. The computer systems were down for a couple of weeks. Many of the employees of Sony were a victim and have been reluctant about what this means for the future of free speech and artistic expression.

If so, what changes were made to ensure that this vulnerability was controlled?

To inspect and analyze how much damage was done by the breach a risk-based security team got in touch with the hackers and asked for more information on what they wanted in return and why these threats were being made. It was a very long going process and almost more than a month-long interaction between sony and the hackers.

If not, what mechanisms were in place to protect against the intrusion?

The reason why they were hacked was because of many factors. One of them is as simple as storing the passwords in a folder called passwords. No encryption was done and all the details were easily available. They did not do well in the physical security of these confidential data. They were not proactively vigilant with securing the information making it very easy for sophisticated attackers to hack. Also, it was proven that the employees of sony pictures entertainment used very easy to guess passwords. They must also have learned from the previous attack when their PlayStation networks were hacked. By now it is very clear that giving importance to cybersecurity should be a number one priority.

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