As the tale of Sony Entertainment’s victimization at the hands of cyber hackers continues to play out (with new twists in the plot revealed almost daily for the last month), it feels like ultimately there may be something positive to emerge from the unprecedented event for us as a society.
While unfortunately, it may have been at Sony’s expense, the Sony hack attack has made cyber security a top-of-mind issue for mainstream media, businesses and consumers.
(Full disclosure, Sony is a valued AVG partner.)
From the initial reports of hacked celebrity email revelations that first put the incident front and center – to a decision by Sony to pull (for now) the film “The Interview” – to unprecedented charges by the FBI of the involvement of a state-sponsored hacker (North Korea) and our U.S. president vowing a “proportional” response for the ‘cyber vandalism’ attack on Sony and our freedom of speech…to North Korea’s internet subsequently going down (as we publish this blog) without explanation on Dec. 22nd 2014. It has now been confirmed by Sony that there will be a limited release of the movie on Christmas Day.
This incident has been playing out like a plot to a thriller –with all of us watching and trying to identify the bad actors. Unfortunately, it really is reality TV.
But one of the impacts also has been well-deserved attention to the increasing concerns about cyber security – from personal to national.
Cyber security is, without doubt, one of the most serious issues of our time.
Clearly, in 2014 the issue of cyber security has moved from being perceived as a somewhat “wonky” IT issue, to one that average Americans are now concerned with. Unfortunately, it has taken the Sony episode along with a year of high-profile data breaches and hacking at other very high profile businesses (Target, Home Depot, JP Morgan Chase, among them) to bring the issue into the mainstream consciousness and concern.
As we close 2014, it feels like it has been the (unofficial) year of the hacker. But it has made people more appreciative of the need for digital security. For that much we can be thankful. And, perhaps it will prompt us all to make 2015 the year of digital security.
It makes me very proud of what we do here at AVG to contribute to making the digital world safer for everyone.