Sony Corp share price up, investigations continue as it deals with breach aftermath

Sony Entertainment Pictures was hacked last month by a group called Guardians of Peace, who brought down the computer network of the PS-maker, illegally released five movie titles and made public sensitive personnel data.

Sony criticized the cyber attack, and are now working with the FBI and FireEye, a network security company, to uncover the way hackers breached the companys systems.

The security violation captured so much attention, unusual for events like this, partly because it involved an enormous theft of personal information about employees working at a major tech company, including pay, performance reviews and health-care records among others.

As a fallout of the attack, employees had to find an “offline” way to do their jobs during the past week, while systems were still down. Workers were forced to pay with cash only at the companys commissary, while outside visitors were issued a handwritten passes by security.

On Tuesday CEO Michael Lynton, in memo sent to staffers, notified them that there is a possibility of more personal data leaks as it is still unknown how much information did the hackers gather during the attack. However, Sony has offered its employees identity-protection services from a third party.

Evidence uncovered by investigators suggested that the breach was initiated by the same group of hackers who attacked South Korean television and banking websites in 2013, and also linking the accident to a North Korean involvement. The malicious code utilized was almost identical and it was compiled on a computer with Korean-language settings.

A probably provocation might have been the upcoming release of “The Interview”, a comedy about a television host who gets an interview with Kim Jong Un and is later recruited by the CIA to assassinate the North Korean leader.

In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Ja Song Nam, North Korea’s UN ambassador wrote “production and distribution of such a film on the assassination of an incumbent head of a sovereign state, should be regarded as the most undisguised sponsoring of terrorism as well as an act of war.”

The leaked data showed that 17 US employees are paid more than 1 million a year, including only one executive woman. Sonys management confirmed the information as correct. Gender equality and race diversity have been a big problem among tech companies. Facebook and Google have even revealed data about their employees related to gender and race, however, they did not provide pay information.

Companies are usually not disclosing pay information as it may prove challenging to explain internal pay structures and provides bosses with an edge while discussing salary agreements.

A joint study conducted in 2012 by University of California, Berkeley and Princeton University, involving more than 6 400 employees at University of California, shows that revealing pay information may lead to a reduction in workforce, as employees who are paid less than the average of their department tend to look for other job opportunities. However, there is a small number of companies that announces that kind of information publicly.

Sony Corp gained 1.81% on Thursday and closed at ¥2 643 in Tokyo, marking a one-year increase of 43.25%. The company is valued at ¥2.98 trillion. According to the Financial Times, the 17 analysts offering 12-month price targets for Sony Corp have a median target of ¥2 850, with a high estimate of ¥3 700 and a low estimate of ¥1 400. The median estimate represents a 9.78% increase from Wednesdays closing price of ¥2 596.