Jonathan Alcorn/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesMichael Lynton, chief executive officer of Sony Entertainment Inc., speaks at the annual Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., on Tuesday, April 30, 2013.The recent cyberattack on Sony Pictures is one of the largest to date - in fact, some are calling it one of the worst hacks in history.
In addition to leaking internal emails between Sony executives, documents, and movie scripts, the hackers behind the attack released a ton of personal information about Sony employees.
An anonymous employee that works in the Los Angeles office for Sony Pictures opened up in an essay published in Fortune about what was happening inside the company in the days following the attack.
Here are some of the highlights from the essay that show how employees felt and how the situation was handled.
- Employees didn't realize how severe the hack was until the following week. "Around Wednesday or Thursday, people started saying: call your bank, change your passwords, set up a new checking account," the employee wrote in Fortune.
- Most Sony employees got information about the hack from news websites and blogs covering the attack. Here's how the employee described it: "We got more information from blogs and websites than we did from Michael (Lynton, CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment] and Amy [Pascal, co-chair of Sony Pictures Entertainment]."
- Sony set up its employees with a security service to prevent identity theft after the hack. The company used a service called All Clear ID, which helps prevent identity theft and provides resources for victims. Still, it sounds like employees took many of their own measures to protect their personal information.The employee that wrote for Fortune noted that the process of changing over passwords was long and tedious, saying he or she had to change about 30 passwords, ranging from Facebook to bank accounts to 401k accounts. Some employees even changed their passports.
- The employee doesn't seem to be satisfied with the way Sony handled the situation. Employees got more information about the hack from news coverage than upper management, but later on, the author also expressed displeasure with the way the hack was addressed in general within the company: "And there's the frustration at the way the top top brass handled the situation. Why didn't they provide more for the employees? Why didn't they bring in security consultants?"
- The hack has taken a "mental toll" on employees. The employee describes how stressful the situation has been mentally, and how there's always the constant worry that someone out there may be trying to use your health benefits or other personal assets. "You read all these reports about morale being low," the employee wrote. "I wouldn't say it's low. You chug along. But it is like, wow, you always have to look over your shoulder. This is forever."