The cyber attack on Sony Pictures has seen a number of embarrassing leaks and revelations and has culminated in the decision to cancel the release of a film about the assassination of the North Korean leader.
24 November: News breaks that Sony Pictures has been hacked. Phones and e-mail services are paralysed, as are all computers.
The first signs of the digital raid comes when the image of a skull flashes on every employee's computer screen at the same time with the warning: "This is just the beginning, we've obtained all your internal data."
Sony is told to obey all the hacker's demands or see the company's "top secrets" released.
28 November: First reports that Sony suspects North Korea is behind the attack in retaliation for 'The Interview', a comedy about a plot to assassinate North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.
1 December: The pre-bonus salaries of 17 top Sony executives are leaked together with the salaries of more than 6,000 current and former Sony employees.
The FBI confirms it has begun an investigation and Sony announces it has hired a cyber security firm to look into the attack.
2 December: Sony chiefs Michael Lynton and Amy Pascal issue a company-wide alert to employees, warning them to "assume that information about you in the possession of the company might be in (the hacker's) possession".
3 December: A cache of withering critiques of Adam Sandler movies reveals that Sony employees apparently think his films are "mundane" and "formulaic".
4 December: Cyber security experts say they have found striking similarities between the code used in the hack of Sony Pictures Entertainment and attacks blamed on North Korea which targeted South Korean companies and government agencies last year.
5 December: It emerges that Sony kept thousands of company passwords in a folder called "passwords". Roy Duckles, EMEA channel director at password management firm Lieberman Software Corporation said: "Putting all your passwords in a folder marked passwords is a very obvious mistake, the hackers must have thought it was Christmas when they found that file."
7 December: North Korea denies orchestrating the cyber-attack but an unidentified spokesman for the North's powerful National Defence Commission said the attack "might be a righteous deed of the supporters and sympathisers" of the North.
8 December: A group claiming to be responsible for the hack publishes a letter reportedly saying "stop immediately showing the movie of terrorism which can break the regional peace and cause the War!"
Sony's online PlayStation store is inaccessible to users for a short time. A hacker group calling itself Lizard Squad appeared to take responsibility for the attack on Twitter. There is no indication of a link between this and the Sony Pictures incidents.
9 December: The FBI say it is not yet clear who was responsible for the cyber-attack. Gawker report that in an email exchange between Sony boss Amy Pascal and producer Scott Rudin, Rudin described Angelina Jolie as a "minimally talent spoiled brat".
10 December: Sony Pictures decides not to invite broadcast media to cover 'The Interview's' red carpet premiere and no interviews are granted to print reporters at the screening.
11 December: Rudin apologises for the remarks he made in leaked emails calling Angelina Jolie a "spoiled brat" and making jokes about President Barack Obama's race and presumed taste in movies.
12 December: At the premiere of 'The Interview' in Los Angeles Seth Rogen thanks Amy Pascal for having the courage "to make this movie". Medical details of some Sony employees are reportedly among the documents stolen by hackers.
13 December: The hackers are said to have promised a "Christmas gift" of "larger quantities of data".
14 December: Producers confirm that an "early version" of the script for the new James Bond film 'Spectre' has been stolen and leaked by hackers.
16 December: Hackers calling themselves Guardians of Peace make threats against the premiere of 'The Interview' and cinemas showing the film, making references to the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001.
17 December: Sony Pictures Entertainment tell US cinemas they can cancel plans to show 'The Interview'.
The same day, US media report that Sony Pictures have decided to cancel the film's release on Christmas Day.
