BlackBerry services and devices proved reliable for hacked Sony employees

BlackBerry's enterprise-grade security enabled Sony executives to continue communicating even when internal systems and landlines went down - Photo by Gadjo C. Sevilla

While Sony Pictures was left reeling from the massive and instrusive hack which revealed a ton of inside information and even saw various movies leaking before they hit theaters, it seems the company relied on BlackBerry devices and services in the wake of the unprecedented hack. Sony apparently dug up old BlackBerry devices after networks and landlines went down in order to communicate and keep the business running.

Reports are sketchy, but it seems that while Sony's internal servers and systems were eviscerated by hackers, older BlackBerry Enterprise Servers were relied on to enable communication on older BlackBerry handsets. BlackBerry, which is attempting a slow but sure resurgence in enterprise, might benefit from this sudden surge in high-profile security breaches. 

Source: ZDNet

Unreleased Sony Pictures movies were stolen and made available on torrent sites after hack

Various still unreleased Sony Picture movies have started to propagate torrent sites as a result of a recent hack into Sony Studios' system.

The movies include Annie, Fury, Mr. Turner and Still Alice are reportedly of high quality and possibly to be used as screeners for upcoming award shows or for advance reviews. Many of these films haven't even hit theatres yet and a leak of this magnitude could potentially affect box office sales in what has already been a lukewarm year for feature films. Nobody has come forward to claim responsibility for the theft but the same hackers that took down Sony's computers last week are being cited as the culprit of this massive leak.

Source: Engadget

Sony Pictures to create a ‘The Last of Us’ movie

Fans of the game The Last of Us are in for a treat. The game will be made into a movie by Sony Pictures. They revealed the limited edition San Diego Comic Con poster over at Twitter. The film with be produced by Sam Raimi and be written by The Last of Us director Neil Druckmann. According to Kotaku, there are rumours that Maisie Williams (you all know her as Arya Stark) might play Ellie. But we’re not sure about that yet. Who would you want to see as the cast of the film?

Bing and RoboCop reimagine the future of search

With the RoboCop remake coming out soon, Sony Pictures partnered with Microsoft to develop a concept of what search could look like in the future. The team in charge of Microsoft’s Bing search engine didn’t want to put out an unbelievable 3D holographic kind of concept. Instead, they wanted the concept to be based on innovations that are just about to crop up and are “very much grounded in today’s reality.”  They showed 3D displays with key data in front and voice recognition like Bing on Windows Phone and Xbox. You can find out more information about the collaboration here.