14 DAY TRIAL // I know the Sony hack is no laughing matter, but one post from a parody Twitter account of Kazuo Hirai, CEO of Sony Corporation, is bound to flex those risorius and zygomaticus muscles on one's face at least into a crooked smile.
The tweet is actually a set of guidelines for Sony employees to protect their email communication from the prying eyes of the hackers.
Quick tips for safer communication
The first suggestion on the list is to write all emails backwards, so that hackers won’t be able to read them. This may sound like a sound advice, but I’d think it through if I were a Sony employee, and I would also refrain from badmouthing anyone in the message, because a frustrated intruder may simply leak it to the public, just like GoP did.
I promise, this is the only amend I would make to the list, which continues with refraining from sharing your password with someone else, unless, of course, that person promises not to tell. Someone's “word” is their “bond”, isn’t it?
The third piece of advice is to keep the keyboard covered when typing a password, or any other type of sensitive information for that matter. This way, hackers coming out of the computer screen won’t be able to see the secret passphrase. Pretty ingenious!
One of my favorite comes fourth on the list and refers to the color of the text font. To throw hackers off track and make them believe that all they got is just a blank email, Sony employees should change to a white font.
If the message is of utmost importance, these security measures may not be too helpful because a motivated hacker could invest the necessary time to find a way through the message. Thus, Kaz Hirai’s tweet instructs using “the most secure network Sony has: PSN.”
Alternative email sending methods
In a previous tweet, it was suggested the use of owls for Sony employees to exchange messages. It is unclear why this particular fowl has been chosen, when it is well known that it is a nocturnal bird, a feature that may impact on the delivery time.
A pigeon would be more suitable for the job, and a crow could even carry attachments. Also a mystery is how the CC and BCC options could be used if this method were adopted; I guess these are part of the company secrets we’ll be privy to in future tweets.
Joke aside, Sony Pictures Entertainment suffered a significant blow that would have completely obliterated most other companies. In a new message that allegedly comes from Guardians of Peace (GoP), a serious threat was made against movigoers trying to watch “The Interview,” a comedy about the assassination of North Korean leader Kim-Jong-un.
GoP are the hackers that broke into the network of the company, stole hundreds of gygabites of information, and then leaked it online in batches. In a previous message, they promised a “Christmas gift” that would consist in larger quantities of data.
Sony has launched new email security guidelines for all our employees: pic.twitter.com/P8xA3A790g
— CEO Kaz Hirai (@KazHiraiCEO) December 17, 2014
Due to security breaches, Sony employees are no longer allowed to use email. All messages must be sent using owls, as owls are unhackable
— CEO Kaz Hirai (@KazHiraiCEO) December 16, 2014
