Whoever it was that was behind ♯GOP’s hack on Sony Pictures sometime in late November, the act is testament to the old adage that information is power.
It is not just the embarrassing tittle-tattle between movie execs about others in the industry that has fallen into the hackers’ hands, but also the myriad of other commercial and personal information that they now possess and may use in nefarious ways in the future. As has been pointed out, Sony bears substantial responsibility for the current failure in its cyber security as it apparently left social-security numbers and salary data unencrypted, and stored passwords in a file conveniently entitled “Password”.
So what conclusions can you draw for your business, beyond the need for vigilance in the way the organisation deals with its cyber-security? Well the wider point is that all information that your company possesses constitutes a powerful resource that you may not be making proper use of. Information is power in the positive sense also.
All companies swim in a sea of law and regulation that is not often actively perceived by those that do business. Avoiding elephant-traps can only be achieved by constantly, and pro-actively, applying legal analysis to the facts faced by the business.