On the 24th of November this year, Sony Pictures Entertainment was hacked revealing details of employees, records and unreleased films to the world. According to the hackers, who are calling themselves the Guardians of Peace (#GOP), claim to have taken over 100 terabytes (100000 gigabytes) of data.
North Korea
The FBI (The Federal Bureau of Investigations) claimed on December the 19th that links between the hack and the Pyongyang government had been uncovered. However, a representative from the North Korean government denied any involvement from North Korea in the cyber-attack. Even if the North Korean government had no involvement with the attack it is still possible that any of their supporters or sympathizers could have initiated the attack.
The North Korea spokesperson said, during an announcement, that they would like to “conduct a joint investigation with the U.S” claiming that the accusations were “groundless slander” that were “being perpetrated by the U.S.by mobilizing public opinion”. The spokesperson continues saying that there “will be grave consequences” should the “U. S refuse to accept our proposal for a joint investigation and continue to talk about some kind of response by dragging us into the case”
An NSC spokesperson, Mark Stroh, dismissed this idea responding “We are confident the North Korean government is responsible for this destructive attack. We stand by this conclusion.”. He went on to say “The Government of North Korea has a long history of denying responsibility for destructive and provocative actions.”.
The FBI claimed that North Korea’s actions fell “outside the bounds of acceptable state behavior”. Obama has said in a statement that North Korea acted alone in the attack after Washington began consultations with Japan, China, South Korea and Russia requesting their assistance in ‘reigning in North Korea’
The Interview
Most of the hype around the attack is related to the unreleased film The Interview, which depicts two journalists recruitment by the CIA to assassinate the North Korean leader during a visit. China has called the film “not a movie for Hollywood and U.S society to be proud of”. The hackers have claimed that there would be severe consequences if the film was to be released, causing nearly all cinemas to pull out from showing the film. Following this, Sony Pictures has stopped the Christmas release of the film, which Obama called “a mistake” wishing that Sony had consulted him before revoking the film.
However, after spending over $44 million (£28 million) on The Interview (Starring Seth Rogen and James Franco) Sony says they have ‘not caved in’ to the hackers and are still looking for alternative platforms to release the film, but so far a spokeswoman for Sony has said they have not further release plans for the film at the current time..
America
At the current time, Obama’s options are limited in what to do against North Korea even after his stern warning. President Obama declined to indulge specifics about any actions that would be taken or that were under consideration.
For over 50 years, North Korea has been under sanctions due to human rights and nuclear weapon programs. Because of this, they have become better at hiding their actions, often money-gaining activities by avoiding the traditional banks.
In response to what North Korea calls Washington’s ‘hostile policy’, they have vowed to boost their ‘nuclear power’ saying that they believed that America was attempting to invade them under the mask of human rights abuse.
The Virus
The FBI announced that after a technical analysis of the software used in the Sony hack, they had discovered links between it and ‘other malicious cyber activity’ that had been previously tied to Pyongyang. But other than this, they refused to answer how they came to the conclusion that North Korea was to blame for the attack.
Retaliation
Experts within the US say that their options could include cyber retaliation, financial sanctions, criminal indictments against those implicated in the attack or an increase in military forces in South Korea who are still, technically, at war with North Korea.
However, any of these sanctions would not cause a great deal of damage to the North due to their isolation and the already imposed sanctions by America due to human rights and its nuclear program. Likewise, there is also a chance that too large of a retaliation would send North Korea over the edge into larger warfare, whether it be physical or cyber.
Vitinethic 