Lessons learnt from the Sony hack into confidential data

Most of you would now be aware of the infiltration into confidential data owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment that happened last November, now known by many as the "Sony hack".

The data that was released included private emails from Outlook mailboxes, files with private information of some 47,000 employees, a copy of the screen play of the upcoming James Bond movie and five unreleased Sony films.

Whilst most of us were caught up in the juicy information and gossip that was released – let's not forget the lessons learnt from the hack:

1. Using your emails for sensitive and confidential communications – whilst this may be hard to avoid because you always hear us lawyers saying "put everything in writing", you should still be wary of what emails you send out and what is contained within them. For any highly confidential emails, those emails should be encrypted.
2. Don't store passwords in a file called "passwords" – it may be common sense to a lot of us but you would be surprised as to how many actually have such a file. And don't put that file in the same folder as the document it is supposed to be protecting! Better yet, use password tools to remember all your passwords instead of storing them in word documents.
3. If something seems odd, don't ignore it – call your I.T. support and report the problem. Taking a screenshot is the easiest way to keep track.
4. Have an incident response plan – when we all started finding out about the hack, the response from Sony showed a lack of planning. If you want your business to continue running as smoothly as possible then you must have a backup plan for your business to continue operating (aka business continuity plan). If you don't have one then put that task at the top of your priority list.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.