Sony Hack Ruling a Double-edged Sword – Daily Journal

By Hsiao (Mark) C. Mao & Sheila Pham

June 22, 2015

Last week, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California denied Sony Pictures’ motion to dismiss as to Article III standing in a case involving a major data breach. Corona v. Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., 14-9600 (filed Dec. 15, 2014). After the hack – supposedly carried out by the North Korean government in protest of the release of the 2014 movie “The Interview” – eight individuals filed a class action alleging that Sony failed to reasonably protect their personally identifiable information (PII), resulting in at least 15,000 current and former Sony employees’ PII being compromised.

One may argue that Corona solidifies the feasibility of data breach cases filed in the 9th Circuit. But a closer look suggests the ramifications are far less clear.