FBI confirms North Korea behind Sony hacks: the explainer

ONE star is a brat, another is exactly like you think he is and two get paid way less than their co-star. Here’s everything you need to know about the massive Sony hack.

Everything we know from the Sony leaks

DEATH threats, celebrity fights and North Korea. These Sony hacks seem to have it all, but what is actually going on?

After the ongoing Sony hacks, which resulted in leaked documents and movies, the alleged hackers have now issued a chilling warning to moviegoers — threatening anyone who sees The Interview to “remember the 11th of September 2001.”

“Warning. We will clearly show it to you at the very time and places ‘The Interview’ be shown, including the premiere, how bitter fate those who seek fun in terror should be doomed to,” a note allegedly written by the hacking group — calling itself Guardians of Peace — read.

Hollywood was defeated by this guy pic.twitter.com/WSo89F1WX2

— Matthew (@Matthops82) December 17, 2014

As a result of that, five of the USA’s major cinema chains have said they won’t be showing the film, and now Sony won’t be releasing the movie on Christmas Day like it originally planned.

Seems pretty serious right? Here’s everything you need to know about this saga.

So what’s happened?

It all started on November 24 when Sony Pictures employees noticed that their corporate network had been hacked. The hackers stole basically every bit of information and private data that Sony had, they then deleted the original copies from Sony’s computers and essentially held Sony at ransom. They said that if their demands weren’t met they would release all their information online.

True to their word, the hackers started releasing private information to the public. At first it was five Sony movies, four of them unreleased. Next was the real damage, when thousands of confidential documents were uploaded.

These included everything from private emails between Sony employees to performance data and salaries of not only employees but stars in their films.

The documents themselves were password protected, with the hackers only giving the password to select journalists. Since then, journalists have been going through all the files to find any scoops possible.

As expected, Sony wasn’t too keen on journalists leaking the information and threatened legal action against those who did.

Who is responsible?

The group claiming the hack calls themselves the “Guardians of Peace”. Many people believe that due to North Korea’s anger at The Interview, that the country is behind it. As of today, many big international news agencies including the New York Times and CNN are reporting that a senior FBI official have confirmed that it was indeed North Korea behind the attacks. They report that the White House is still debating whether or not to publicly accuse North Korea for the hacks and how to retaliate.

this is the NK hacking crew (guardians of peace) who hacked Sony pic.twitter.com/jo6HpvU8xA

— Julio Cesar (@who_leeoh) December 17, 2014

If the United States does go ahead and accuse Kim Jong-un and co of the attack, Japan, where Sony was founded and based is strongly opposed to confrontation with North Korea. They claim that the public accusation and retaliation would interfere with their negotiation to retrieve Japanese nationals that were kidnapped years ago.

They also report that they FBI and US officials went into sudden urgency this week to find the culprit after a new threat was shown on Sony offices’ desktop computers. The threat claimed that if The Interview was the be released on December 25, “the world would be full of fear.”

“Remember the 11th of September 2001. We recommend you to keep yourself distant from the places at the time.”

While the source says that the White House has concluded that the attacks on Sony were definitely done by North Korea, it hasn’t been able to work out of the country was aided by a Sony insider.

It’s still not clear how the United States came to the conclusion that North Korea was involved. However, the US has been tracking North Korea’s computer operations for four years now. Even so, in the past, North Korea has been known to do its hacking from China.

Despite the attack using commercially available tools and techniques that have been used in the past, one US intelligence official told the New York Times that, “This was of a sophistication that a year ago we would have said was beyond the North’s capabilities.”

Scrapped! Sony has confirmed it will be not releasing “The Interview” anywhere.

What information has come out of this?

While 90 per cent of what came out of it was rather boring, there were a few interesting pieces like:

• Emails showed that Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams got paid less than their male counterparts in American Hustle.

• One senior executive called Angelina Jolie a “minimally talented spoiled brat.” Others described Kevin Hart as a “whore”, while multiple people had a dig at several Adam Sandler films released by Sony.

• Channing Tatum emails just like you thought he would.

• A rare insight into the profitability of Sony’s movies. Traditionally, profits off Hollywood flicks are kept as big secrets.

• Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton is a Snapchat board member. So due to the hacks, it’s now been revealed Snapchat has secretly purchased a number of start-ups and confirmed that Snapchat definitely knocked back more than $3 billion of Facebook’s money when the social network tried to acquire it last year.

Jessica Alba, or should we say “Cash Money”

• Kanye West wants to make a film, he even pitched it to Sony earlier this year.

• Celebrity aliases that the stars use when checking into hotels. Jessica Alba as “Cash Money” was a highlight.

• Lots of personal employee data. Names, addresses, drivers license numbers, passport numbers, credit card numbers, bank account details.

What now?

It looks like most of the damage to Sony has been done. However, the threats by the hackers have left the US government on high alert.

While the FBI continues its investigation and the White House debates what to do with it, journalists will continue to pore through the leaked data. A lot of the leaked data hasn’t closely been looked through yet, so there still might be some big stories to come out of it.

Sony now will need to look at their security. This isn’t the first time the Japanese company has been targeted, with its PlayStation Network the target of a big attack in 2011 where millions of gamers had their personal data stolen. Sony was slammed by everyone, with one security expert Chester Wisniewski telling Gizmodo that Sony’s flat-footed response in 2011 made it much easier for the hackers.

Sony just had the best free marketing campaign for a film ever and then decides not to release it.

— Neal Mann (@fieldproducer) December 17, 2014

It’s still not sure whether The Interview will make its way to Australian cinemas after the pull in the US, but we can expect an announcement from Sony Australia soon. But after the company confirmed it would not be releasing the film in any form in the United States, we highly doubt it will be coming here.

All jokes aside, Sony pulling the Interview because of terrorist threats is a direct assault on free speech.

— Michael Cohen (@speechboy71) December 17, 2014

The biggest thing to come out of Sony pulling the movie, according to many on Twitter, is that they believe it now opens the door to other groups threatening major attacks against companies or people doing things they don’t like.

News.com.au has contacted Sony for comment.