Tag: Sony

US Intelligence Releases Information On How North Korea Was Fingered for Sony Cyberattack

| January 28, 2015

Via One Free Korea comes this NY Times article that discusses how the Obama administration was able to pin down North Korea as the source of the cyber attack against Sony Pictures:

sony image

The trail that led American officials to blame North Korea for the destructive cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment in November winds back to 2010, when the National Security Agency scrambled to break into the computer systems of a country considered one of the most impenetrable targets on earth.

Spurred by growing concern about North Korea’s maturing capabilities, the American spy agency drilled into the Chinese networks that connect North Korea to the outside world, picked through connections in Malaysia favored by North Korean hackers and penetrated directly into the North with the help of South Korea and other American allies, according to former United States and foreign officials, computer experts later briefed on the operations and a newly disclosed N.S.A. document.

A classified security agency program expanded into an ambitious effort, officials said, to place malware that could track the internal workings of many of the computers and networks used by the North’s hackers, a force that South Korea’s military recently said numbers roughly 6,000 people. Most are commanded by the country’s main intelligence service, called the Reconnaissance General Bureau, and Bureau 121, its secretive hacking unit, with a large outpost in China.

The evidence gathered by the “early warning radar” of software painstakingly hidden to monitor North Korea’s activities proved critical in persuading President Obama to accuse the government of Kim Jong-un of ordering the Sony attack, according to the officials and experts, who spoke on the condition of anonymity about the classified N.S.A. operation.  [New York Times]

You can read more at the link, plus I recommend reading One Free Korea’s take on this issue as well.

Sony’s “The Interview” is Released and Critics are Not Impressed

| December 27, 2014

The highly controversial movie “The Interview” was released yesterday despite threats from North Korean sponsored hackers and that means more reviews of the movie are in.  Like some of the initial screening reviews I read these reviews are not good either:

The Hollywood Reporter’s Todd McCarthy calls it “an intensely sophomoric and rampantly uneven comic takedown of an easy but worrisomely unpredictable target, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. In the relatively sparse annals of irreverent major studio comedies that pissed off foreign nations, for big laughs this one doesn’t rate anywhere near Borat or Team America: World Police. … As political satire goes, The Interview has the comic batting average of a mediocre-to-average Saturday Night Live sketch, with a few potent laughs erupting from an overall mash of sex, drugs and TV broadcasting jokes that feel rooted in a sense of humor primarily characterized by a frat-boy/altered state/prolonged adolescence mind-set.”

Additionally, “if you set up as provocative a premise as do the makers of The Interview, you ultimately have to deal with all its implications; let’s just say that what concludes the film is rote action, simplistic wish-fulfillment stuff that feels cheap and naive and more concerned with looking coolly kick-ass than with any real-world consequences. Even if one part of the film is sincere in wanting to highlight North Korea’s negatives (famine, ideological orthodoxy, cult of personality, militarism, nuclear brinkmanship, et al.), the larger part is devoted to very Western-style sexual grossness, deterministic outrageousness, self-satisfied obliviousness and contended immaturity.” Alongside Franco and Rogen, “Park brings great energy and enthusiasm to his tricky job of portraying the world’s least known big-deal ruler — there are even scenes of him getting the famous Kim haircut and selecting a suit from a closet full of identical ones.”  [The Hollywood Reporter]

You can read more reviews at the link, but this movie appears to be pretty horrible.  I think I will pass on watching it even if it is supposed to be my patriotic duty now to do so.  Has any ROK Heads seen this film and can verify how bad it is?

North Korea’s Internet Shutdown for 9.5 Hours After Possible Cyberattack

| December 24, 2014

This supposed cyberattack on North Korea’s Internet is probably more for US domestic political consumption to show that the US is “doing something” than punishing North Korea for the Sony hack:

 

Key North Korean websites were back online Tuesday after a nearly 10-hour shutdown that followed a U.S. vow to respond to a crippling cyberattack on Sony Pictures that Washington blames on Pyongyang.

It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the Internet stoppage in one of the least-wired and poorest countries in the world, but outside experts said it could be anything from a cyberattack to a simple power failure. The White House and the State Department declined to say whether the U.S. government was responsible.  [AP]

Even if a cyberattack had caused the shutdown, analysts said, it would largely be symbolic since only a tiny number of North Koreans are allowed on the Internet — a fraction of Pyongyang’s staunchly loyal elite, as well as foreigners.

You can read the rest at the link, but the few websites they have like the Korean Central News Agency was shut down for just 9.5 hours, big deal. Hopefully some different response actions will be explored as well.

North Korea Continues to Gloat and Make Threats After Sony Hack

| December 22, 2014

The Kim regime must be feeling pretty of themselves right now after there successful Sony hack because they continue to gloat and make threats:

nk flag

While steadfastly denying involvement in the hack, North Korea accused U.S. President Barack Obama of calling for “symmetric counteraction.”

“The DPRK has already launched the toughest counteraction. Nothing is more serious miscalculation than guessing that just a single movie production company is the target of this counteraction. Our target is all the citadels of the U.S. imperialists who earned the bitterest grudge of all Koreans,” a report on state-run KCNA read.

“Our toughest counteraction will be boldly taken against the White House, the Pentagon and the whole U.S. mainland, the cesspool of terrorism,” the report said, adding that “fighters for justice” including the “Guardians of Peace” — a group that claimed responsibility for the Sony attack — “are sharpening bayonets not only in the U.S. mainland but in all other parts of the world.” (CNN)

You can read more at the link.

North Korea Makes New Threat Against US Over Sony Hack Investigation; How Should the US Respond?

| December 21, 2014

North Korea looks like they want to take a page out of the playbook they used for the sinking of the Cheonan where everyone knew they did it, but by continuing to deny it it allows their allies like Russia and China to help cover for them to prevent any real consequences for the attack:

North Korea said U.S. accusations that it was involved in a cyberattack on Sony Pictures were “groundless slander” and that it was wanted a joint investigation into the incident with the United States.

An unnamed spokesman of the North’s foreign ministry said there would be “grave consequences” if Washington refused to agree to the joint probe and continued to accuse Pyongyang, the official KCNA news agency reported on Saturday.

On Friday, President Barack Obama blamed North Korea for the devastating cyberattack, which led to the Hollywood studio cancelling “The Interview”, a comedy on the fictional assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

In its first substantive response to the accusation, the isolated North Korea said it could prove it had nothing to do with the massive hacking attack.

“We propose to conduct a joint investigation with the U.S. in response to groundless slander being perpetrated by the U.S. by mobilizing public opinion,” the North Korean spokesman said.

“If the U.S. refuses to accept our proposal for a joint investigation and continues to talk about some kind of response by dragging us into the case, it must remember there will be grave consequences,” the spokesman said.  [Reuters]

You can read more at the link, but North Korea is back making threats against the US again.  It will be interesting to see what the US response will be, but I do not see this as an act of war as some people are claiming.  Why should poor network security by a company be a reason to draw the US into a war?  This is a crime not an act of war.  Pushing for further members of the Kim regime to be tried at the International Criminal Court would be one way to respond.  It is highly symbolic, but it would be highly embarrassing for the Kim regime just like the past referral of North Korea for human rights violations was.  Putting North Korea back on the State Sponsors of Terrorism List, a list they never should have been taken off of in the first place, would be another way to respond.  Finally as One Free Korea points out taking financial action against the regime could be the most effective way to really get the attention of the Kim regime to act as a deterrent against such a cyberattack in the future.

Has North Korea Effectively Silenced Hollywood with Sony Cyber Attack?

| December 19, 2014

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.