Hollywood's hacking pains are bigger than movie leaks

[Len]

NEW YORK — Piracy has been a long-running and even routine issue for Hollywood. Now cybercriminals are also putting embarrassing chatter and other company secrets at risk.

The reputational risk from leaked email is much more difficult to calculate than any financial risk from piracy, in part because there’s no way to really know what’s in the emails.

The cataclysmal event in the back of everyone’s mind is the Sony hack in 2014. While unreleased movies were leaked, what’s remembered is the chaos unleashed amid a network shutdown and the disclosure of comments about well-known actors and then-President Barack Obama.

Although the recent HBO leaks so far have fallen short of the damage inflicted on Sony, there were concerns early on that hackers were setting the stage for an embarrassing sequel for Hollywood.