Scourge · November 24 2014

The Scourge of the Guardians of Peace

Chronicle

On 24 November 2014 a red skull signed 'Guardians of Peace' appeared on Sony Pictures' screens. A wiper erased thousands of computers while the attackers leaked unreleased films, executives' emails and employee data. They then threatened cinemas that showed 'The Interview', the comedy about North Korea's leader. By December the FBI had attributed the attack to North Korea.

Lesson learned

It showed that a cyberattack can be sabotage, blackmail and censorship all at once, and that internal email should be written as if someone will read it one day.

Prayer of reparation

O Guardians of Peace, who brought precious little of it, leave our servers in peace and our cinemas open. Amen.

How it is remembered

Remembered with offline backups, a segmented network, encrypted staff records and the good habit of writing emails you could read aloud.