Tag: cyber attack

Over the years I have had a number of technical problems keeping the site up, but I don’t think they were caused by the North Koreans though stories like this one make me wonder:

A prominent U.S. human rights activist claimed Friday that North Korea hacked into his computer last week which contained a document on cooperation between North Korea and Syria.

Greg Scarlatoiu, executive director at the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, said that when he woke up at a hotel during his recent visit to Latin America, he found that his computer had been “compromised and remotely accessed.”

The Washington-based non-governmental organization has focused on shedding light on North Korea’s human rights violations and improving the North’s rights records.

“Only one document was opened. That document contains some material that I had received from Syrian human rights defenders regarding Syria-North Korea cooperation,” Scarlatoiu told Yonhap News Agency on the sidelines of a forum in Seoul.

“There is only one suspect here,” he said, referring to North Korea.

Scarlatoiu said that cyber security experts whom he has contacted said that “most likely the attack came from North Korea,” though he has no hard evidence for that. His claim has yet to be independently verified.  [Korea Times]

You can read the rest at the link.

It is well known that the North Koreans have decent hacking capabilities, but if they were to attempt to take out a nuclear plant I think the gloves would have to come off to deal with them:

A North Korean defector who worked as a university professor in the country has said in an interview with the BBC that North Korea now has over 6,000 hackers.

Professor Kim Heung-Kwang taught science at a university in North Korea for 20 years. But he defected in 2004 and fled the country.

Speaking to the BBC, Kim estimated that up to 20% of North Korea’s military spending goes toward Bureau 121, the army unit believed to focus on hacking.

Kim suggests the capabilities of North Korea’s hackers are significant. He said “their cyberattacks could have similar impacts as military attacks, killing people and destroying cities.”

Another claim made in the interview is that North Korea is working to develop its own malware based on Stuxnet. North Korea was named responsible for the Sony Pictures hack, in which it used modified computer software to hack into Sony Pictures and take over the company’s servers. But now Kim says the country wants to develop a new type of malware that can target nuclear plants. [Business Insider]

You can read more at the link.

Sony Pictures has decided to cancel the release of “The Interview” due to the fact many movie theaters decided not to show the film due to the various threats made online against anyone showing it.  This decision has upset celebrities because it appears North Korea who the US government has supposedly linked to the hack has been able to silence free speech in the US:

Celebrities expressed their outrage at Sony Picture’s decision to cancel plans to release “The Interview” on Christmas Day on Twitter.

The news comes after many major theater owners canceled next week’s screenings of the controversial film, which depicts the assassination of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un.

U.S. investigators appeared ready to blame North Korea for the crippling hack attack at Sony Pictures, which saw the leak of internal emails and personal information that escalated to a threat that people should avoid going to theaters where “The Interview” is playing.

When the film was pulled, celebrities vented their disappointment and raised concerns about the precedent it would set for controversial films in the future.

Actor Judd Apatow, a friend of one of the film’s lead actors Seth Rogen, tweeted: “I think it is disgraceful that these theaters are not showing The Interview. Will they pull any movie that gets an anonymous threat now?

West Wing actor Rob Lowe, who also makes a cameo appearance in the film said: “Wow. Everyone caved. The hackers won. An utter and complete victory for them.  [CNN]

You can read much more celebrity feedback at the link. However, I cannot blame the theaters because I think they are less worried about a bomb attack, but instead more worried about being hacked like Sony was.  I’m sure all these movie companies are probably now doing huge reviews of their network security right now.  Yes if North Korea was behind this attack they have effectively been able to silence Hollywood and even silence future movies about North Korea:

The shockwaves from the Sony hack have finally reached Hollywood’s development community, as New Regency has pulled the plug on its Steve Carell movie “Pyongyang,” which Gore Verbinski had been prepping for a March start date, an individual familiar with the project has told TheWrap.

Based on the graphic novel by Guy Delisle, “Pyongyang” is a paranoid thriller about a Westerner’s experiences working in North Korea for a year.  [The Wrap]

A plus for all of this out this hack is that the Kim regime has saved us from watching what reviewers are calling not a great movie. On a downside it looks like there will never be a Team America Part 2.

This hack of Sony by likely North Korean hackers is actually turning out to be a very effective way for the North Koreans to influence how Hollywood tries to depict their country in future films.  The Kim regime has clearly had enough of being the stereotypical bad guys for various Hollywood films and the leak of these internal Sony emails is proving to be highly embarrassing and could lead to legal action against the company for many years to come:

The hits on Sony keep coming.

As journalists pore over hundreds of thousands of internal Sony emails the hacker group calling itself Guardians of Peace starting releasing on Nov. 24, more sensitive information continues to be uncovered, including revelations published on Friday by The Daily Beast, Re/code, Gawker, and The Verge.

To date, the hackers have released Sony executives’ salaries, top-secret profitability data, employees’ Social Security numbers, embarrassing emails and at least five films and opened up legal risks for years to come. The most revealing information leaked so far has come from the email exchanges between studio execs and Hollywood’s elite. Here are 10 of the latest developments. [Yahoo Movies]

You can read more at the link, but surely any Hollywood film company is going to think twice about making North Korea the stereotypical bad guys for their films after this cyberattack against Sony.