Sony’s Losses From Massive Hack Could Top $100M
Anyone who thinks hacking is harmless has never had to pay the bill following the aftermath. For Sony, the tab to clean up the mess left behind by the recent ransomware attack on its systems could reach as high as $100 million, no small sum even for a major movie studio. The only good news is that the tally will likely be less than the estimated $171 million Sony paid as a result of hackers infiltrating its PlayStation Network (PSN) several years ago.
Cybersecurity experts who have studied past attacks point out that there are costs associated with investigating the security breach, repairing and/or replacing infected systems, and beefing up security so that future attacks of the same nature don't occur again. On top of all that, you have to factor in lost productivity -- Sony's workers were forced to shut down their systems and use pen and paper to get work done when the attack first took place.
Sony is still assessing the damage and doesn't yet have a number to share, though it undoubtedly will be high -- this is considered the biggest cyberattack on a company's systems located in the U.S. Insurance will help pay part of the bill, but not all of it.
Some costs are tough to estimate. For example, the attackers posted unreleased films to torrent sites, which could negatively affect box office ticket sales. On a longer-term basis, it could also impact DVD and Blu-ray sales. However, there's no easy way to determine how many movie pirates would have gone on to watch any of the leaked films in theaters or purchase them on physical (or digital) media had they not been stolen from Sony's systems.
Cybersecurity experts who have studied past attacks point out that there are costs associated with investigating the security breach, repairing and/or replacing infected systems, and beefing up security so that future attacks of the same nature don't occur again. On top of all that, you have to factor in lost productivity -- Sony's workers were forced to shut down their systems and use pen and paper to get work done when the attack first took place.
Sony is still assessing the damage and doesn't yet have a number to share, though it undoubtedly will be high -- this is considered the biggest cyberattack on a company's systems located in the U.S. Insurance will help pay part of the bill, but not all of it.
Some costs are tough to estimate. For example, the attackers posted unreleased films to torrent sites, which could negatively affect box office ticket sales. On a longer-term basis, it could also impact DVD and Blu-ray sales. However, there's no easy way to determine how many movie pirates would have gone on to watch any of the leaked films in theaters or purchase them on physical (or digital) media had they not been stolen from Sony's systems.
