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It’s official: FBI says North Korea behind Sony hack

It’s official: FBI says North Korea behind Sony hack

Now what?

The speculation as to who the U.S. government thinks was behind the Sony hack is over.

The FBI now is on record blaming North Korea, via NBC News:

The FBI on Friday formally accused the North Korean government of the hacking attack that led Sony Pictures Entertainment to cancel the movie “The Interview.”

“North Korea’s actions were intended to inflict significant harm on a U.S. business and suppress the right of American citizens to express themselves,” the bureau said in a statement. “Such acts of intimidation fall outside the bounds of acceptable state behavior.”

U.S. officials had said privately earlier in the week that they suspected North Korea. The FBI said Friday that technical analysis had revealed links to North Korean-developed malware, including lines of code and encryption algorithms.

Here is the full FBI statement (via Business Insider):

Today, the FBI would like to provide an update on the status of our investigation into the cyber attack targeting Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE). In late November, SPE confirmed that it was the victim of a cyber attack that destroyed systems and stole large quantities of personal and commercial data. A group calling itself the “Guardians of Peace” claimed responsibility for the attack and subsequently issued threats against SPE, its employees, and theaters that distribute its movies.

The FBI has determined that the intrusion into SPE’s network consisted of the deployment of destructive malware and the theft of proprietary information as well as employees’ personally identifiable information and confidential communications. The attacks also rendered thousands of SPE’s computers inoperable, forced SPE to take its entire computer network offline, and significantly disrupted the company’s business operations.

After discovering the intrusion into its network, SPE requested the FBI’s assistance. Since then, the FBI has been working closely with the company throughout the investigation. Sony has been a great partner in the investigation, and continues to work closely with the FBI. Sony reported this incident within hours, which is what the FBI hopes all companies will do when facing a cyber attack. Sony’s quick reporting facilitated the investigators’ ability to do their jobs, and ultimately to identify the source of these attacks.

As a result of our investigation, and in close collaboration with other U.S. Government departments and agencies, the FBI now has enough information to conclude that the North Korean government is responsible for these actions. While the need to protect sensitive sources and methods precludes us from sharing all of this information, our conclusion is based, in part, on the following:

· Technical analysis of the data deletion malware used in this attack revealed links to other malware that the FBI knows North Korean actors previously developed. For example, there were similarities in specific lines of code, encryption algorithms, data deletion methods, and compromised networks.

· The FBI also observed significant overlap between the infrastructure used in this attack and other malicious cyber activity the U.S. Government has previously linked directly to North Korea. For example, the FBI discovered that several Internet protocol (IP) addresses associated with known North Korean infrastructure communicated with IP addresses that were hardcoded into the data deletion malware used in this attack.

· Separately, the tools used in the SPE attack have similarities to a cyber attack in March of last year against South Korean banks and media outlets, which was carried out by North Korea.

We are deeply concerned about the destructive nature of this attack on a private sector entity and the ordinary citizens who worked there. Further, North Korea’s attack on SPE reaffirms that cyber threats pose one of the gravest national security dangers to the United States. Though the FBI has seen a wide variety and increasing number of cyber intrusions, the destructive nature of this attack, coupled with its coercive nature, sets it apart. North Korea’s actions were intended to inflict significant harm on a U.S. business and suppress the right of American citizens to express themselves. Such acts of intimidation fall outside the bounds of acceptable state behavior. The FBI takes seriously any attempt – whether through cyber-enabled means, threats of violence, or otherwise – to undermine the economic and social prosperity of our citizens.

The FBI stands ready to assist any U.S. company that is the victim of a destructive cyber attack or breach of confidential business information. Further, the FBI will continue to work closely with multiple departments and agencies as well as with domestic, foreign, and private sector partners who have played a critical role in our ability to trace this and other cyber threats to their source. Working together, the FBI will identify, pursue, and impose costs and consequences on individuals, groups, or nation states who use cyber means to threaten the United States or U.S. interests.

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Comments

Time for 0b0z0 to get out his red marker pen and a straight edge.

A serious problem here is, “How do you hurt N.Korea?”

They have pretty much nothing to hack. We could take out their power grid, such as it is.

You are left with blunt instruments as all you have in the tool kit.

send a “strongly worded letter”?

“COURAGE!”

SAD: Industry which prides itself on its supposed courage, tries to evoke Dan Rather signing off during one of his nuttier phases.

AND SADDER: Ends up evoking Bert Lahr in a goofy Lion suit.

LukeHandCool (who is imagining rumors swirling about that Clooney, failing to find a single Hollywood exec to sign his letter in support of Sony, will now start production on “Good Night and Good Luck 2.” Because we can’t let a long-dead Republican Senator squash our free expression. Courage.)

Meet Hollywood’s newest (and only) leading man:

Dennis Rodman.

“FBI says North Korea behind Sony hack”

OK. But this FBI is part of a DOJ that tortured facts to create the Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown narratives a significant portion of the U.S. population now considers fact.

“Trust but verify.” – Ronald Reagan

Aspiring starlets hoping to be “discovered” gather for the grand opening of the new Schwab’s Pharmacy.

http://media.katu.com/images/111220-North-Korea-660.jpg

smalltownoklahoman | December 19, 2014 at 1:01 pm

So, since NK has been officially named as the culprit what if anything are we going to do about it? Sanctions would be kinda pointless as NK is dirt poor already, financial restitution from NK to Sony is also pointless because again the dirt poor thing, a firm scolding from Obama to Kim Jong Un warning him not to do it again? What can we do right now that would make NK regret attacking Sony and threatening the lives of American moviegoers?

What goes around comes around.

North Korea!? Really!? I wonder how much help China provided them? I suppose Obama is now going to lift sanctions on NK and demand that South Korea demilitarize.

George Clooney:

“Where’s that commie-fighting evil Republican Joe McCarthy when you need him?”

Deny entry to any Chinese freighter.

George Clooney, Prince of Free Speech, in “Good Night and Good Luck 14: Hack Wars”

“Help me commie-fighting evil Republican Joe McCarthy. You’re my only hope.”

R2D2: Uhhhhhh ….

The Last Tradition | December 19, 2014 at 1:44 pm

Sony’s decision to pull the Interview will haunt then and other American intersts in a huge waay. America has become a joke under the leadership of stupid Liberals with no guts!
The Last Tradition

Awwww … HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

Awwww … HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-NqjGyWtUw

A Switch in Time Saves …

If the Greatest Generation vets were today’s Hollywood execs, we’d probably have some pretty crappy movies.

But if today’s Hollywood execs had been the ones to storm the beaches of Normandy, we’d surely all be dead.

Life imitates kowtowing art.

Headline: New ownership moves to reassure nervous industry after hostile takeover.

Pyongyang announced changes will be small and gave a hint at a new direction for the movie industry.

Mogul Kim Jong-un moved to calm nerves by revealing his first change.

Lyrics for the song of popular movie “Team America: World Police,” would incur a very slight modification,

from “America! F*ck Yeah!”

To:

“America! F*ck You!”

    LukeHandCool in reply to LukeHandCool. | December 19, 2014 at 3:00 pm

    That was supposed to be:

    “Pyongyang announced changes will be small and the direction of the industry will stay the same.”

    That makes sense.

    Another idea was barging in at the time and I got mixed up.

Maybe the consumer needs to punish Sony more than they feared the Norks would punish them.

“We are holding your revenue hostage until you release the movie”

Fat dictator kid with bad haircut to Hollywood:

“Who looks like the marionette character now?”

Hollywood to fat dictator kid with bad haircut:

“I can’t breathe!”

“The FBI on Friday formally accused the North Korean government of the hacking attack that led Sony Pictures Entertainment to cancel the movie “The Interview.”

More false, liberal reporting.

The threats of 9-11 style terrorist attacks on movie threatens caused the cancellation. The hacking was not the cause. The movie theaters refused to screen the film due to liability concerns and fears that the terroristic threats would scare people from going to theaters that show The Interview. Is. Is Obama’s America. North Korea used terrorist threats to extend their censorship to American theaters. NBC and its liberal colleagues praised Obama for his swagger and deprived the American people of the truth once again.

Obviously the only thing to do is normalize relations, open an embassy, sign them up for welfare and Medicaid.

    “…sign them up for welfare and Medicaid.”

    No need. I’m sure that, like Cuba, they already have free world class health care. Just ask the fat film maker.

Well, there goes my theory of the case!

But there is little anyone but China can do to influence PRK behavior at this point. They are already under the toughest international sanctions we can impose. They have nothing else – counter-hacking isn’t an option, it is one of the few intelligence-gathering methods we have for the PRK, we lose more than we gain by cluing them into where we’re breaching their defenses.

I note that Obama has threatened North Korea with serious, ‘proportionate’ response twice before: in 2010 after their nuke test and in 2012 after missile firings. In both cases he did . . . nothing at all.

I have a new theory:

Sony hacked theirselves, planted NK fingerprints.

Movie would have been a bomb. Now, when it is finally released, it will make a buck or 2.

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