If the brouhaha over the latest Seth Rogen and James Franco film “The Interview” proves anything, it proves that the North Koreans have no sense of humor. None at all. I mean, if the United States government hacked a film studio every time that there was a film lampooning our President, our government, or where part of the plot line was an attempt to kill the President, I don’t think we would have any film studios left.
But humor aside, there are two disturbing aspects of all this. First, we really don’t have the cyber-security to protect ourselves from a hacking attack from North Korea. Seriously gang? As someone joked the other day, do they even have computers in North Korea? I mean, if we were talking China or India or Russia, everyone would understand. But North Korea?
Secondly and more disturbing, Sony’s response is to just pull the movie from cinemas? That’s the best that we can do? The North Koreans raise the specter of 9/11– although it’s not clear what is supposed to take place inside movie theaters that is so dangerous, and which can be created by a hacker half a world away — and the whole movie industry folds up like a house of cards? I would have gone to see this movie just to see what the North Koreans were so bent out of shape about. If released, this movie would have done gangbusters.