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Comments
Sony Hackers Knew Details Of Sony's Entire IT Infrastructure
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johnwinning12
johnwinning12,
 User Rank: Apprentice
12/4/2014 | 9:56:45 PM
Also mentioned on Unfilter
They talked about the Sony hacks I see on this weeks episode of Unfilter by Jupiter Broadcasting titled Putin's Pipe Dream"
BillB031
BillB031,
 User Rank: Strategist
12/4/2014 | 11:24:34 PM
insider?
Could it have been a disgruntled insider doing this or assisting?  Almost sounds to extensive for it not to be
Marilyn Cohodas
Marilyn Cohodas,
 User Rank: Strategist
12/5/2014 | 9:44:13 AM
Re: insider?
The Verge interview certainly implies that access was gained with the help of an insider..Hard to be sure, not knowing whether the anonynmous source is credible or not. More to come, I hope.

 
savoiadilucania
savoiadilucania,
 User Rank: Moderator
12/5/2014 | 10:19:43 AM
Attribution
Unlike government organizations, which are unencumbered by shareholder wealth, commercial organizations have an incentive to dilute the reputational impact associated with a breach of this magnitude. An easy way to do this is to attribute the breach to a sophisticated adversary, which clevely offsets a certain amount of responsibility. This would have worked in Sony's favor had the attack more closely resembled nation-state activity. But the post mortem analysis that shows disclosure of social security numbers, contracts, passport photographs, etc. is not a national interest. Nor is an entertainment company, regardless of the underlying "they made a bad move about us" tall tale that has been floated.
Sara Peters
Sara Peters,
 User Rank: Author
12/5/2014 | 10:28:25 AM
Re: insider?
@Marilyn What struck me about the Verge interview was that the source said "Sony doesn't lock their doors, physically," which makes me think that the attackers got physical access to Sony's systems -- which, they couldn't do from North Korea. It also would have made it much easier for them to walk out with data on portable storage media and install malware without having the usual monitoring software pick up on it.
Marilyn Cohodas
Marilyn Cohodas,
 User Rank: Strategist
12/5/2014 | 10:54:31 AM
Re: insider?
Excellent points, Sara! You are good detective! If that 's the case  I would hope that at the very minimum, Sony's physical plant security team are locking the doors now.
savoiadilucania
savoiadilucania,
 User Rank: Moderator
12/5/2014 | 11:01:08 AM
Re: insider?
Yeah, I can't really agree with this. Risk vs. return on a black bag job is far worse than phishing an unsuspecting techniican.
Adam Boone
Adam Boone,
 User Rank: Apprentice
12/5/2014 | 1:14:12 PM
Re: insider?
Great article, Sara. Your take on the anonymous source's comments to The Verge seems very logical to me. But I also wonder if maybe it is not some misdirection. By making it seem like they had the help of an insider and physical access, are the attackers hiding some other vector? So it might be compromised remote access to some internal system and then hopping through Sony's infrastructure like in the Target breach. A little misdirection might keep the holes open.
TerryB
TerryB,
 User Rank: Ninja
12/5/2014 | 1:58:30 PM
Backups?
I know I'm pretty much a dinosaur as far as tech today but can't they just wipe the hardware and restore from latest backups to get rid of the malware?  What am I missing on this?
stevechalmers
stevechalmers,
 User Rank: Apprentice
12/5/2014 | 2:28:04 PM
Re: Backups?
Hmmm...it looks like the attackers had a lot of time inside the Sony network, to find their way around, before the "attack".  The backups from a week ago probably represent systems that were already compromised.  So how far back do you go to be sure the backups themselves don't include the "infection", and do logs exist which allow all transactions since that point in time to be replayed (re done)?

Seems like this is beyond the scope of what a normal disaster recovery plan would cover...

 
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