Sony Streaming Movie; Hackers Break into Systems
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: And here we go. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you so much for being here with me here. You know, we want to begin with this. If the threats from some North Korean hackers didn't scare you and the power of free speech compelled you to run out and snap up Christmas Day tickets to the year's most controversial movie, well, we have some news for you. You won't be able to - you won't be the first to catch it. Sony has just decided to release "The Interview" today. And you won't even have to leave your house to watch it. It is available right now for purchase on YouTube, Google Play, Microsoft's xBox video and at a price cheaper than what you will pay at those independent movie theaters, who just got the green light to screen the film tomorrow. So let's talk about this with CNN's Pamela Brown and also let's begin on the phone, I have Brian Stelter, CNN senior media correspondent, host of "Reliable Sources," who has been breaking news all over the place on this one. So, Brian Stelter, to you. You know, some of my producers and writers have actually been trying to go online, have had some troubles trying to get on to watch this film. What are you hearing about the rollout here online?</s>BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: It's going OK, Brooke, but there is a lot of interest in it. Some websites are faring better than others. YouTube seems to be faring pretty well, for example, but Sony also created its own website for this. They call it seetheinterview.com, as if it was some gigantic special event, which I guess that it is. And that website has had a hard time staying online, presumably because a lot of people are trying to access it all at the same time.</s>BALDWIN: So let me just read this tweet. You know, Seth Rogen and James Franco have been all a twitter over this and so this is the latest from Seth Rogen. "I need to say that a comedy is best viewed in a theater full of people. So, if you can, I'd watch it like that, or call some friends over." So, Pam Brown, to you. I mean they're obviously still pushing the theater option. What has been the reaction? I talked to a theater owner, you know, yesterday out of Charleston, South Carolina, and he told me he wasn't too worried about this online release. What have others said to you?</s>PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, we spoke to a theater owner, Westin Cinema, in D.C., and he basically is just focused on the fact that he's showing the movie tomorrow, on Christmas Day, and he's excited about it. In fact, they have been inundated with calls and all of the tickets are sold out for tomorrow, Brooke, for this movie at this particular theater. And so they're thinking about adding more showings of it tomorrow and moving forward. So that just gives you an idea of the response, how people are responding to the fact that these theaters are stepping up to the plate and showing the movie after the major movie chains backed out initially last weekend after we heard that announcement from Sony that they won't be releasing it. Now this huge turn of events just in the past 24 hours and there has been an outpouring. I think for a lot of people it's a way to take a stand for free speech. I think that's what's driving a lot of this. And just pure curiosity too after all the hype over this movie, Brooke.</s>BALDWIN: Totally. I keep saying this over and over and over, but you can't buy this kind of buzz. I mean who - who would have thunk -</s>BROWN: Yes.</s>BALDWIN: That, you know, the notion of holding onto one of these, you know, ticket stubs or movie posters will probably bring in a dollar or two. Brian Stelter, what about, though, in terms of cold hard cash, you know, if you have people watching this online, what kind of profits will Sony now make from this?</s>STELTER: Yes. You know, you've heard of turning lemons into lemonade. This is turning controversy into cash. You know, they're charging $6 to rent it, $15 to buy it. So, imagine, if you got a few million people renting this movie, you're talking about serious money. The fact that the president of the United States has weighed in, in the past hour, is so telling, Brooke. I mean it shows how wild this story has been. The White House issued a statement saying the president welcomes the news that people will be able to decide for themselves whether to see this movie and it goes on to say, he appreciates Sony's work on this. You know, last week he criticized Sony, said they made a mistake by canceling. So clearly he's now showing some support. And the most important line in his statement is this one. "With today's announcement, people can now make their own choices about the film and that's how it should be." Brooke, a lot of people don't care about this movie. The point is that people now have the choice. It hasn't been censored or restricted by outside hackers.</s>BALDWIN: All right, true. Pam, finally to you. You know, when this goes into wider release tomorrow, right, at some of these cities and some of these municipalities, are people at all taking precaution? I mean are security measures, is that even something they're thinking about at all?</s>BROWN: Absolutely it is. And, in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if you see police officers at some of these theaters where the movie will be showing. We know that police departments have been in coordination with some of these theaters and the FBI has as well. In fact, there was a notice sent out last night, Brooke, after the news came out that these theaters would be showing the movie asking cyber task forces and joint terrorism task force agents to team up and reach out to some of these theaters and educate them on what the possible threat may be and talk to them about some of the safeguards they can put into place to ensure that they're safe and the movie goers are safe, those who want to go see the movie tomorrow, Brooke.</s>BALDWIN: Pamela Brown, thank you very much. Brian Stelter, on the phone with me on this Christmas Eve, my thanks to both of you. And North Korea, highly suspected in this Sony hack, we've talked about that. The Internet in that country has gone down and this is all just days after President Obama warned, you remember, in that end of the year news conference of this proportional response from his administration for this act of cyberterrorism. But how exactly did hackers break into Sony's computer system? Tom Foreman has that.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Take him out.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You want us to kill the leader of North Korea?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What?</s>TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A hack, such as the one on Sony, can start with a list of names like the credits for a film, only this list would be of employees. Hackers would scrutinize that list for people who work on the targeted company's computer network, sorting out their relationships with information from FaceBook and LinkedIn and even figuring out which projects they're involved with. Security specialist Alex Mcgeorge helps companies understand how it works.</s>ALEX MCGEORGE, SECURITY SPECIALIST: Once you've got a list of people that you think are going to have this level of access, that's who you then target for spearfishing.</s>FOREMAN: Spearfishing is when a hacker sends an e-mail to a specific person that seems to be coming from a legitimate colleague.</s>FOREMAN (on camera): And I look at it and because it's from someone I know, I open the e-mail. Not only that, because the subject makes sense, I then click on the attachment and that's critical, right?</s>MCGEORGE: Right. So now you're going to a webpage that I designed and it's, as you'll notice, as it renders here, it's going to look legitimate.</s>FOREMAN (voice-over): But that website is installing malicious software. And in seconds, the target's computer is under the hacker's control.</s>FOREMAN (on camera): Oh, look at that.</s>MCGEORGE: That is your desktop.</s>FOREMAN: And now my computer is showing up on your computer.</s>MCGEORGE: Exactly right.</s>FOREMAN: And you can see exactly what I'm up to.</s>MCGEORGE: Exactly right.</s>FOREMAN (voice-over): The hacker can read e-mails, look at projects, reports, budgets, pictures, even record your every key stroke.</s>MCGEORGE: So in realtime, I see exactly what you're typing on your screen. And this is how we get passwords.</s>FOREMAN: This is a simple version of what appears to have been a much more elaborate scheme in the case of Sony.</s>MICHAEL LYNTON, CEO, SONY ENTERTAINMENT: Both the FBI and</s>FOREMAN: And yet the cost of this hack may ultimately prove much harder to calculate. Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.</s>BALDWIN: Tom, thank you so much. Coming up here on CNN, U.S. strikes against ISIS take a terrifying turn. Militants capture a pilot, part of this U.S.-led coalition, after his plane went down over Syria. What this means for the fight against ISIS moving ahead. And next, another deadly officer involved shooting and even more protests, but as the mayor of the city points out, look at the facts. Folks, this is not Ferguson. The officer had a gun pointed directly at him and the whole thing was caught on tape. We will talk to the mayor of Berkeley, Missouri, who will set the facts straight, right after the break.