North Korea Denies Involvement In "Righteous" Sony Hack

angry tapir writes North Korea's government has denied any involvement in the attack on Sony Pictures, but in a statement indicated that it's not necessarily unhappy that it happened. In a statement, the country's powerful National Defence Commission, which controls North Korea's armed forces, said it had no knowledge of the attack. The latest reports indicate that the hackers worked from a hotel in Thailand.

Comments

I'd be curious about the consequences.

[allaunjsilverfox2]

North Korea is already sanctioned pretty hard. I'm curious what happens when a nation state attacks a multinational company. Do the nations that said company is registered in team up to respond? Do they elect a body to deal with it? And if so, how large does a multinational have to be to elicit such a response?

Re:I'd be curious about the consequences.

[fustakrakich]

Yakuza

Re:I'd be curious about the consequences.

[Artifakt]

A nation literally cannot attack a multi-national company in the way these attacks have happened. That's because these attacks now include physical threats against the citizens of other nation states. Those threats make no sense coming from a nation state, and just about have to be from some third party if North Korea is involved in even the 'cyber' part of the attacks. That's because the nation doesn't want to find itself in a war with other nation states and not just the corporation, or to get boxed in by making a threat they don't intend to follow through on and lose face. Bluffs are for when you are already desperately losing, not beginning.
          Do you really think North Korea could follow up on those death threats by actually attacking those people, perhaps claiming they were legitimate targets as Sony employees and not being killed as citizens of the US, Japan, or other states, and that those states should also ignore any other deaths that resulted as merely collateral damage? Assasinate a few thousand citizens and any witnesses, family members, and first responders and such that get involved, and act like their citizenship doesn't matter? The bodies that deal with such things are not elected, they are called by such names as carrier strike forces and joint combat arms taskforces.
      If the Korean government did pay for hacking teams, and sticks to just cyber-attacks, there's still some risk if they hit promiscuous targets or affect the various stock markets enough, but any involvement by governments would depend on whether Sony or Wall Street or whatever even asks them to become involved. For such non-lethal attacks, sanctions would probably begin with a UN resolution and individual states agreeing to participate in further economic restraints as they saw fit once that resolution passes. Sony would have to lobby various governments to support the UN sanctions if they can get more declared, and this gets to such things as taking out ads in many of those countries reminding their citzens that Sony is not just a Japanese company, and such preliminaries, before anything much else is done.
          If UN lobbying efforts fail (unlikely if there's any real evidence NK is involved), Sony would probably still lobby individual nations to act, but Sony can also go ahead with asking some individual governments to help with proving for certain just where the attacks are coming from, and not have to rally the UN there, so that's the one step they are doubtless already taking.
        Sony is actually allowed less independence in even trying to gather evidence that it was really North Korea than North Korea is in initiating such non-physical attacks, and in theory, Sony is the side that would have to be very careful not to have any malicious code spread to other parties and such, while a nation has more rights. In practice, theory goes out the window if the right US senators are taking a hit because of the Sony stock in their retirement portfolios.

Re:I'd be curious about the consequences.

[Buck Feta]

A nation literally cannot attack a multi-national company in the way these attacks have happened. That's because these attacks now include physical threats against the citizens of other nation states. Those threats make no sense coming from a nation state, and just about have to be from some third party if North Korea is involved in even the 'cyber' part of the attacks. That's because the nation doesn't want to find itself in a war with other nation states and not just the corporation, or to get boxed in by making a threat they don't intend to follow through on and lose face. Bluffs are for when you are already desperately losing, not beginning.

We're talking about North Korea. They are not bound by the rules of what a nation state "can" and "cannot" do. I agree, this would make no sense, but again... North Korea.

Poor Sony...

[fufufang]

Using North Korea as a scapegoat was a perfect strategy for Sony. Blaming the attack on a nation state is way better than admitting its poor security practices. But North Korea has now denied the involvement, I wonder what they are going to do...

Re:Poor Sony...

[cold fjord]

Blaming the attack on a nation state is way better than admitting its poor security practices.

Those aren't contradictory, both can be true.

Re:Poor Sony...

[TheRaven64]

It's a matter of perception. People are much more forgiving of a company that can't secure its networks against the intelligence services of a foreign power than a company that can't secure its networks against a couple of kids.

Re:Poor Sony...

[Vintermann]

But North Korea has now denied the involvement

Oh, that's OK then.

Leak, not Hack

[AK Marc]

The hotel was the site of the leak, not the hack. No details on the hack have been released, and from what I can tell, Sony may not have known about the hack until the release of the leak, from the Bangkok hotel.

If anyone has more details, please share. Especially the confirmed ones, not the rumors.

Re:Leak, not Hack

[Spy Handler]

TFA (second link) says the Sony attack used similar components as the 2013 "DarkSeoul" attacks on S. Korean banks and government sites. Those were confirmed as originating from N. Korea.

Add to that the other circumstantial evidence and it's looking more and more like the Norks are responsible.

Does anyone know what GoP's demands actually are?

[mark-t]

[nt]

Re:What happens in Thai Hotels stays in Thai Hotel

[Bite The Pillow]

A wise man once told me, always suspect ladyboy. Then, is only mild surprise when find you right!

It's never been applicable before, and I hope to God now's the time, instead of yesterday evening.

imagine...

[Connie_Lingus]

...how more they could have got if they stayed at a Holiday Inn Express.

The hack fits North Korean psychology

[Required Snark]

This is the kind of retaliation that seems to fit the North Korean mold. It doesn't matter if they did it themselves or had someone else do it for them.

There seem to be two general styles of politically motivated hacking. One is the NSA/CIA style: the goal is to get as much information as quietly as possible. One of the things that the Snowden/Manning leaks revealed is how extensively the NSA was able to do this.

The other style is the highly visible attack. This is the kind of thing that the Syrian Electronic Army engages in. Much of what they do is intended to be high profile whether they claim responsibility or not.

Despotic leaders like Assad and Kim Jong-il want to see damage and humiliation inflicted on their enemies. It's fundamental to their political strategy. They do this internally to victims of their regimes and externally to their foes.

Rationally it doesn't make much sense for North Korea to waste this kind of capability on a single company. That kind of activity would be better used on a strategic target, say a western defense company or infrastructure in South Korea. (There have been attacks on South Korean banks that fit this description.) But Kim Jong-il is not a rational leader. Atacking Sony because of a perceived personal insult seem just like the kind of thing he would do.

It puzzles me

[maroberts]

How North Korea, a nation with what is one of the worlds most primitive computing/ internet facilities, has the ability to carry out what appears to be a sophisticated attack that walks away with almost every drop of data Sony has in its possession. Even a couple of random sympathisers should not have been able to do the job.

Sony has not got many friends in the world, mainly due to restrictive copyright practices and DRM. It would surprise me less if some groups who were opposed to this had over a long period of time, wormed their way into Sonys network, and after being confident they could see everything, struck at an opportune moment.

Or it could be Adam Sandler, highly pissed at the lukewarm enthusiasm with which Sony release another of his movies...