"Why pick on Sony? They haven't had a hit since the Walkman." In a skit on "Saturday Night Live" last weekend, Mike Myers nailed one of the less-discussed problems to be exposed by North Korea's hack of Sony Pictures: the apparent cluelessness of top Sony brass in Tokyo.
Like the Japanese media, Sony's corporate headquarters thus far seems to view the hacking drama as mostly an American problem. When local newspapers have covered the story, they've focused on Hollywood's poor taste in lampooning North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Sony executives, including CEO Kazuo Hirai, have barely commented.
In fact, the attack has exposed a disturbing lack of cyber-preparedness on Sony's part. Hirai early on recognized the sensitivity of "The Interview" — the Seth Rogen comedy that appears to have provoked the Pyongyang regime — even going so far as to ask for revisions to the climactic assassination scene. But since the hacking, public coordination between Los Angeles and Tokyo has been poor. The controversial decision to pull the movie from theaters before release was reportedly made by the studio alone.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.