Man Who Exposed Target Security Breach Is Focus of Sony Movie Deal (Exclusive)

Richard Wenk is on board to write the screenplay adapted from the New York Times article "Reporting From the Web’s Underbelly."

Sony has picked up the rights to the New York Times article "Reporting From the Web’s Underbelly," which focused on cyber security blogger Brian Krebs. Krebs, with his site KrebsonSecurity.com, was the first person to expose the credit card breach at Target that shook the retail world in December.

Richard Wenk, the screenwriter who wrote Sony's high-testing big-screen version of The Equalizer, is on board to write what is being envisioned as a cyber-thriller inspired by the article and set in the high-stakes international criminal world of cyber-crime.

Escape Artists' Steve Tisch, Todd Black and Jason Blumenthal are producing as are Todd Hoffman and Richard Arlook. David Bloomfield will executive produce.

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Nicole Perlroth's New York Times article told of Krebs, who has the appearance of a mild-mannered accountant but writes with a 12-gauge shotgun by his side, is an expert in the digital underground and is on a first-name basis with some of the biggest cyber-criminals in the world, many of whom are Russian.

Krebs started as a technology reporter for the Washington Post, where he developed his niche in the security domain. When his editors wanted him to broaden his beat, he refused and was let go. That's when he created his own blog, which hit it big when he was first to report about Target’s breach in security in December when millions of credit card numbers were stolen.

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For his work, Krebs had his identity stolen half a dozen times and had fecal matter and heroin sent to his house. Once, a SWAT team was called to his home just as his mother was arriving in an incident of "swatting" committed by hackers.

The cybersecurity project reteams Wenk with Escape Artists, as both are behind Equalizer, which is due September 24. Wenk, repped by Gersh, the Arlook Group and Schreck Rose, is already working on a sequel.

Storied Media Group repped the New York Times.