I think the truth could run in one of two directions. Todays news implied that Iran, China and North Korea were in cahoots and aggressively attacked Sony for months and finally penetrated their bastion. Sony was helpless to defend. That is what the press and FBI seem to be saying.

The facts seem to say that Sony was incredibly incompetent and had all sorts of sensitive files sitting on servers with no access protection. Sr. staff never deleted emails and made newsworthy statements in their emails, especially ones that attacked celebrities and even the President. With this juicy material, including unreleased movies, all free for the taking, the hackers used well known standard techniques to penetrate. Then they leisurely sucked down a lot of information and no one noticed the traffic.

While there is no excuse for theft, if I have shoddy locks, no lights, no alarms, on my home I may be at more risk than if I had solid locks, security systems, lights, etc. Whether it was North Korea or the next door neighbor, it was not a particularly difficult crime to pull off.