Call me a cynic if you like ! However isn't it obvious that if someone in Power wants to regulate the internet,

wouldn't it be easy for him to hint to the NSA that they need a False Flag on the internet to boost support

amongst the populist to push for stronger regulation to protect and strangle the internet ? I can't for the

life in me think of anyone who fits that description ? 00P's maybe the liar in chief ?

Couldn't Sony open the film in limited release leaving those few theatres open to cyber attack and use the opportunity to track the hackers?
If they don't attack the theatre owners and Sony profit until the bad reviews kill attendance.

The attack on Sony and the theft of its data were two separate, but perhaps related, events. First 100 terabytes were downloaded. THEN the disks were wiped.

Across the information security blogs, its is repeated that the credentials of a system administrator were compromised. See for instance, here:
"The Sony Pictures hackers reportedly gained access to Sony’s systems by obtaining the login credentials of a high-level systems administrator.
"According to CNN, an anonymous US official who was reportedly privy to government briefings on the topic of the Sony hack, said that once they got these credentials, they were granted the “keys to the entire building”
"Trey Ford, global security strategist at Rapid7 noted that when the attack was first reported, it was that the attacker had ability to change all the PC screensavers on the Sony network. “This attack technique is trivial for an insider with valid network credentials and only incrementally harder for an external actor,” he said. “I do not believe this data point is a useful indicator identifying an external or internal actor. The police likely have additional information which is leading them to believe the credentials were stolen."
http://itsecurityguru.org/sony-pictures-...