If Sony Pictures, by any chance, have had thoughts of getting away with the recent cyber attack since the issue has subsided a bit, well they have worse to face. As per a Reuters report, the devastating cyber attack will continue to haunt the Japanese conglomerate as damage repair costs could mount to as high as $100 Million.
The recent cyber attack, which by all standards, was the biggest on any company on U.S. soil, lead to the leak of personal information of numerous Hollywood celebrities and over 47,000 Sony employees.
The cost will however be substantially lesser as compared to the $171 Million which Sony had to bear when its Playstation Network got hacked in 2011. Lessening costs are due to the fact that no customer data has been leaked during the current attack.
As per Reuters,
Major costs for the attack by unidentified hackers include the investigation into what happened, computer repair or replacement, and steps to prevent a future attack. Lost productivity while operations were disrupted will add to the price tag.
Apart from the monetary aspect, it has also been a loss of prestige for Sony due to lack of security in its cyber infrastructure. Furthermore, a Buzzfeed report had later found out that sensitive information like passwords and Social Security Numbers were lying unencrypted in highly unsecured PDFs or xls files.
The hackers, identifying themselves as “The Guardians of Peace” had gone a step further by sending threat mails to Sony employees. They also threatened to “remove Sony Pictures from Earth” of employees did not give up to their demands. The attack seems all the more dangerous as there appears to be no financial motive behind the hack.
The situation has been made even more tensed by statements of Kevin Mandia, CEO, FireEye Inc’s Mandiant forensics unit. He termed the attack as “unparalled” and “well-planned” and of a magnitude, which they have never encountered before.
