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Kim Jung-un, North Korea's supreme leader

North korea was indeed responsible for the massive hack on Sony Pictures, according to officials from inside the U.s.a. government. This follows on from Sony cancelling the release of The Interviewamid threats of further attacks from the hackers — including threats of terrorism against cinemas if they show the movie (which lampoons the Democratic People's Republic of korea, or DPRK). While we plain condemn the connected threats and release of private, not-newsworthy information, I would like to signal out i affair: There is very little evidence that Due north Korea was actually behind the assail — which makes me wonder, a) Why is the US government fingering North korea? and b) If it wasn't Democratic people's republic of korea, who hacked Sony Pictures?

Updated @ eleven:52am, Dec 19: The FBI has issued an official statement saying it's really quite sure that the Due north Korean government is backside the hack on Sony Pictures. The statement says that the malware used past the hackers, and the infrastructure/IP addresses connected to the hack, line up with previous cyber attacks by Northward Korea.

Who framed Northward Korea?

From the outset, the only connexion between the Sony Pictures hack and North korea was The Interview, a comedy moving picture where Seth Rogen and James Franco assassinate Kim Jong-united nations. At present, Democratic people's republic of korea was certainly upset about the film — it complained about information technology to the UN back in July — simply the hackers didn't mention the movie at all in its original set of demands, which was emailed to Sony executives a few days before the hack went public. The famous Guardians of Peace paradigm (below) didn't mention the movie, either.

Sony Pictures, hacked by Guardians of Peace (GOP) warning message

Sony Pictures, hacked by Guardians of Peace (GOP) warning message

The hackers only latched onto The Interview after the media spent a week prognosticating over the possibility of it beingness the driving strength backside the hack. It wasn't until December viii, at least a calendar week after the Sony Pictures hack went public, that the attackers started using The Interview as leverage. If you had only hacked Sony, and the world media just gave you lot the perfect opportunity to shift the arraign onto N Korea, wouldn't you lot practise the same thing?

There's also the overall timeline of the hack to accept into consideration. The hackers managed to exfiltrate around 100 terabytes of information from Sony'southward network — an arduous chore that, to avoid detection, probably took months. Given how long it would've taken to proceeds admission to Sony Pictures, plus the time to exfiltrate the data, I call back the wheels started turning long before Democratic people's republic of korea heard about The Interview.

Even if we take the pic out of the equation, the hack but doesn't feel similar something that would exist perpetrated by a nation country. The original warnings and demands experiencesimilar the aggressor has a much more personal axe to grind — a disenfranchized ex employee, perhaps, or some kind of hacktivist group makes more sense, in my optics.

An inside chore?

Then far, the sole purpose backside the Sony Pictures hack appears to be devastation — the destruction of privacy for thousands of employees, and the destruction of Sony'southward reputation. Much in the same fashion that murder is a crime of passion, so was the hack on Sony Pictures. Bear in listen that the hackers gained access to nearly every single slice of data stored on Sony'due south network, including the passwords to bank accounts and other bits of information and intellectual holding that could've been sold to the highest bidder. The hackers could've made an accented fortune, but instead opted for complete annihilation. This all feels awfully similar revenge.

Really, though, the biggest indicator that it was an inside job is that the malware used during the set on used hard-set paths and passwords — the assaulter knew the exact layout of the Sony Pictures network, and had already washed plenty legwork to find the necessary passwords. This isn't to say that North korea (or another nation country) couldn't take washed the legwork, but it would've taken a lot of time and endeavor — maybe months or even years. A far more than likely option is that the assail was carried out by someone who already had access to (or at least knowledge of) the internal network — an employee, a contractor, a friend of an employee, etc.

So, why'south the Usa pointing the finger at North Korea?

Belatedly yesterday, the New York Times published a story citing "senior administration officials" that Democratic people's republic of korea was "centrally involved" in the Sony Pictures hack. Unfortunately, the aforementioned officials don't requite any indication of how North Korea pulled off the attack. Presumably US intelligence found some signs that pointed to North Korea's interest — and hopefully we're talking about tell-tale signatures that are more conclusive than the fact that the malware was written on a computer with the locale set to Korean (anyone can change the locale of their computer with a couple of clicks).

The other option is that the US government is just doing a bit of saber rattling — perhaps to see how the DPRK responds, or perhaps to justify some retaliation.

The Interview poster

Posters for The Interview accept probably gone up in value…

The NYT says that the White Business firm doesn't yet know how it will react. Presumably, if there's any kind of public retaliation or condemnation, the evidence tying North Korea to the Sony hack will have to be released.

Who exercise I think hacked Sony Pictures? Well, I don't think information technology was as simple or every bit clean cut every bit "North Korea did it." I think we're either looking at a loose-knit group of hackers/hacktivists (like to Anonymous), or some kind of combination attack — perchance someone on the inside opened the door for Northward Korea to arrive, or alternatively a country similar North Korea or China found a hole in Sony'due south security and then passed that vulnerability along to some unaffiliated hackers.

In either case, nosotros are almost certainly looking at an assaulter that is massively tech savvy, just too superb at playing the net/social media game. North korea isn't commonly very good at either of these things — only who knows, maybe Kim Jong-un has whipped his cyber army into shape?

At present read: Sony fights back against hackers, stolen file sharers – by firing a DDoS back at them