Sony delays earnings statement, blames Sony Pictures hack

The cyberattack aimed at Sony Pictures this past November may have been even more devastating than previously thought. Sony announced Friday that it had asked Japanese regulators to push back the deadline for the company’s quarterly earnings report by six weeks, claiming that its network infrastructure still has not fully recovered from the hack.

Sony made its request in an application filed with the Financial Services Agency of Japan. Without the extension, the deadline for its earnings statement would be February 16. In the filing, Sony asks for a delay until March 31.

According to the document, most of Sony’s “financial and accounting applications and many other critical information technology,” are not even fully functional yet, and will not be until “early February 2015.” Apparently the attack’s destruction and disruption were so widespread that the company is hesitant to prematurely restart functions due to the risk of even further damage to its infrastructure.

The attack this past November paralyzed the computer systems at Sony, causing confidential emails and other private data to be accessed by hackers. Not long after the attack, online copies of DVD screeners of four unreleased Sony movies appeared on several movie-pirating websites.

Despite the filing dealy, Sony still plans to hold a previously planned press conference about its third quarter earnings on February 4.  Even though the company will be able to provide only incomplete information at that point, Sony will attempt “to the extent possible” to provide an updated earnings forecast to investors, shareholders, media, and other stakeholders.

“I have to say that I am very proud of all the employees, and certainly the partners that we work with as well, who stood up against some of the extortionist efforts of the criminals,” Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai told CNN Money.

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