Friday, December 19, 2014

Not Our Brand

Let's review:

1) The American subsidiary of an international corporation headquartered in Tokyo decides to take on a project that lampoons a the head of state of a hostile nation with an outsized military.

2) The uniformed leaders of that hostile nation consider the project a propaganda assault on the dynastic leader they are sworn to protect. They respond by devoting unknown resources, including their cash to a preemptive intelligence and digital infiltration campaign against the global corporation involved.

3) Using their own resources and the skills of unidentified global techno-mercenaries, they hack into the communications of the high-tech global company and dig up dirt. Then they tell the world about some of what they found, damaging the corporate brand, to the embarrassment of some of the top officials of the company's American subsidiary.

4) They then threaten to do more damage to the company if the lampooning project ever sees the light of day. That damage could include attacks on the exhibitors and their audiences during the most lucrative period of their marketing year.

5) With the possibility that even more damaging information on the global giant might be leaked, and with its strategic partners distancing themselves from the fray, corporate leaders roll over and throw the project back into the vault.

Now, in case you think I'm off-base, this is how Sony USA self-identifies: "Sony Corporation of America, located in New York, NY, is the U.S. headquarters of Sony Corporation, based in Tokyo, Japan."
My point, if this were Mercedes Benz, Mitsubishi, or Toshiba, would the U.S. government be obliged to respond?

Japan is a high-tech leader with ample defense capabilities.and a keen geopolitical interest in what happens on the Korean peninsula. Despite its global reach, Sony is one its most important businesses.

The USA does a lot in the world, and we may eventually help out here because cyber-terrorism and state cyber-warfare are huge issues, but the Sony attack is one of those world problems that may not have an American solution.