It's not that computers are dangerous, it's that people are still the weakest link. What I've read on the Sony hack was it was via one key IT person. They obtained his/her password and essentially had the keys to the kingdom.
You can engineer the best in security, but if someone has an easy to guess/hack password, or gives it up via social engineering, you are compromised.
The hackers then installed all sorts of software throughout Sony's IT infrastructure to send data to the hackers.
To over simplify, there are two types of hackers. One type is looking for long hanging fruit. If your security is better than someone elses, chances are, the hacker will move on to someone easier to hack. (Think Home Depot, Target, etc.)
The second type is highly motivated, perhaps ideologically driven. They will devote great skill and resources to get into their target because their motivation is to bring down that target. The first type is just trying to get a bunch of personal information, they don't care where or from whom it comes. The second type wants to cause problems for the specific target.
This is a much harder hack to defend because the adversary is motivated to keep trying until they gain access to their target network. They only need one exploit to gain access while you have to defend against everything, known and unknown at all times to keep them out.
Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
Now that Sony has been shut down and cant' even use their own computers to make payroll can other computer systems also be made useless as well. How can our economy survive this kind of problem when it starts spreading?
I discovered that the cashiers at Walmart don't know how to make change without the display on the cash register. My bank teller can't explain the difference between a debit and a credit to my checking account. The front office person at my dentist office does not know what a credit adjustment does to my account balance but knows how to make entries in the office computer program. The cashier at the local convenience store refused to take a dollar coin as payment. I then asked her to break a 100 dollar bill. She asked my what bills I would like. I said 10 ten dollar bills, 2 twenties, 2 fives and 10 ones and she gave me exactly that. I had to give her back everything except for the tens. What's going to happen if computer systems start failing?
