We’re All Going to Get Hacked

Harvard Business School  | February 13, 2019

In November 2014, Sony Pictures suffered a massive, high-profile data breach, with hackers breaking in and stealing everything from confidential employee data to unreleased films. And not long after, on a Saturday morning, Ray Rothrock’s cell phone rings. Rothrock (MBA 1988) is the CEO of the cybersecurity firm Red Seal, and a higher-up at Sony was looking for his help. After the breach, he told Rothrock, the company essentially hit factory reset on their entire network. The phones were down. They were doing payroll by handwritten checks. They had burned it all down. And now they needed someone to help them rebuild it.