North Korea Denies Responsibility for Sony Attack, Warns Against Retaliation

jones_supa writes: A North Korean official said that the secretive regime wants to mount a joint investigation with the United States to identify who was behind the cyber attack against Sony Pictures. An unnamed spokesman of the North Korean foreign ministry was quoted by the country's state news agency, KCNA, describing U.S. claims they were behind the hack as "slander." "As the United States is spreading groundless allegations and slandering us, we propose a joint investigation with it into this incident," the official said, according to Agence France-Presse. Both the FBI and President Barack Obama have said evidence was uncovered linking the hack to to North Korea, but some experts have questioned the evidence tying the attack to Pyongyang. Meanwhile, reader hessian notes that 2600: The Hacker Quarterly has offered to let the hacker community distribute The Interview for Sony. It's an offer Sony may actually find useful, since the company is now considering releasing the movie on a "different platform." Reader Nicola Hahn warns that we shouldn't be too quick to accept North Korea as the bad guy in this situation: Most of the media has accepted North Korea's culpability with little visible skepticism. There is one exception: Kim Zetter at Wired has decried the evidence as flimsy and vocally warns about the danger of jumping to conclusions. Surely we all remember high-ranking, ostensibly credible, officials warning about the smoking gun that comes in the form of a mushroom cloud? This underscores the ability of the agenda-setting elements of the press to frame issues and control the acceptable limits of debate. Some would even say that what's happening reveals tools of modern social control (PDF). Whether or not they're responsible for the attack, North Korea has now warned of "serious consequences" if the U.S. takes action against them for it.

Comments

of course it wasn't NK

[Anonymous Coward]

US gov't never passes on an opportunity to fabricate stories which make their foes look bad (Russia, Syria, Iran, Lybia, Venezuela, etc)

Re:of course it wasn't NK

[Fwipp]

Thank you. I don't know why so much of Slashdot seems to be taking the obvious "it was NK omg" story at face value, even after NK explicitly denied it. They take credit for things they've never done - if they'd hacked Sony successfully, of course they'd be bragging about it.

Re: of course it wasn't NK

[O('_')O_Bush]

Except if your view was thought through to its conclusion, the NK would have claimed to have hacked Sony whether they did or did not actually do so. The fact that they regularly lie about what they have and haven't done makes any face-saving claim dubious.

Re:of course it wasn't NK

[Frosty Piss]

I don't know why so much of Slashdot seems to be taking the obvious "it was NK omg" story at face value, even after NK explicitly denied it.

Ah yes, because the North Koreans have a history of being so honest and forthright?

Re:of course it wasn't NK

[AmiMoJo]

The Americans are not exactly known of their honesty either. Both are equally liable to be lying.

Incompetence vs Conspiracy

[Gim Tom]

Do not attribute to a conspiracy that which can be adequately explained by incompetence -- especially if you won't show your evidence of said conspiracy. The company that thought a Root Kit was a good idea does seems to be lacking something in the competence department.

Re:Incompetence vs Conspiracy

[ChipMonk]

Sony, the company that thought it would be a good idea to use other computers in ways the computers' owners wouldn't want, now finds others using Sony's computers in ways Sony doesn't want.

Karma's a bitch.

And OJ offers a reward to find the real killer

[lurker412]

My first reaction was that it was like OJ Simpson offering a reward to find the real killer. But then I took off my snarky goggles and on reflection, I realized that given government, corporate and media interests and manipulation there's no way in hell we'll ever know the truth. Sad but true, I'm afraid.

I doubt it was North Korea

[Todd Knarr]

For one thing, if North Korea was capable of this sort of hack they've got more tempting targets to use that capability on. And it's just a bit too convenient, coming on the heels of a disappointing performance by Sony, for SPE to suddenly get an excuse to get out from under another apparent flop. My bet is the hack's just another in a long string of breaches by the usual gangs of malcontents, aided and abetted by corporate obliviousness to security, and various parties are just taking advantage of superficial connections for their own reasons.

official statement

[Trepidity]

The North Korean news agency mentioned (KCNA) has the statement on their website. It seems to be a weird webapp that doesn't allow direct linking, but you can find it if you click on "English" at the top, then scroll down a bit to "DPRK Foreign Ministry Rejects U.S. Accusation against Pyongyang over Cyber Attack". Or just look here:

Pyongyang, December 20 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of the DPRK gave the following answer to a question put by KCNA Saturday as regards the U.S. accusation against the DPRK over a cyber attack on a movie company in the U.S.:

Obama, Kerry and other high-ranking authorities of the U.S. cried out for sort of counter-measure Friday, claiming that the results of the investigation into the cyber-attack on the Sony Pictures Entertainment proved that the DPRK was behind it. They, without presenting any specific evidence, are asserting they can not open it to public as it is "sensitive information."

Clear evidence is needed to charge a sovereign state with a crime. Reference to the past cyber-attacks quite irrelevant with the DPRK and a string of presumptive assertions such as "similarity" and "repetition" can convince no one.

The U.S. act of daring charge the DPRK with a crime based on absurd "investigation results" reveals its inveterate bitterness toward the DPRK. This is proven, as in the recent cyber-attack, by the recent urge made by a man called a "human rights special envoy" of the U.S. State Department to movie-makers that they should harass the north Korean government and keep alive scenes hurting the dignity of the its supreme leadership. The U.S. ruling quarters are working hard to divert the criticism of its administration to the DPRK as the plan of putting on show the anti-DPRK film on Christmas Day canceled due to the controversial cyber-attack, causing an uproar in the U.S.

We will never pardon those undesirable elements keen on hurting the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK. In case we retaliate against them, we will target with legitimacy those responsible for the anti-DPRK acts and their bases, not engaging in terrorist attack aimed at the innocent audience in cinemas. The army of the DPRK has the will and ability to do so.

The U.S. State Secretary is going to justify the production of the movie hurting the dignity of the supreme leadership of a sovereign state while trumpeting about the freedom of expression. He should know that there is punishment of libel in enforcement of international law.

We propose the U.S. side conducting a joint investigation into the case, given that Washington is slandering Pyongyang by spreading unfounded rumor. We have a way to prove that we have nothing to do with the case without resorting to torture as what the CIA does.

The U.S. should bear in mind that it will face serious consequences in case it rejects our proposal for joint investigation and presses for what it called countermeasure while finding fault with the DPRK.

Re:False Falg?

[Frosty Piss]

For example, why was the CIA meeting with Sony just a month prior to this happening? [link to Radaronline.com]

Ah, yes, Radaronline. An excellent journalistic news site right up there with the Washington Post and the New York Times, especially if you are interested in the latest buzz about Kim Kardashian's ass, and what Justin Bieber is up to. It's my "go-to" site for factual news about international politics!

Translation:

[jd2112]

We didn't hack you. but if you retaliate we will hack you again!

Re:False Falg?

[daniel142005]

Thinking the same... I mean Target was hit, Home Depot, Chase, etc.. No one made a big deal about it until the MAFIAA got hit. Now it's suddenly a cyber 9/11? Sony is the only one to blame here.. They have been hit MULTIPLE times and still failed to secure their networks. It did however shed a lot of light on the questionable practices they're using to attack the internet and Google.

It's kind of sad, but I'm more inclined to believe North Korea than our own government on this one. Sony isn't even in the US... It's primarily based out of Japan. Where is Japan's response? They've barely even mentioned the incident. Honestly, I wouldn't even put it past Sony or another MAFIAA member doing it. A cyber 9/11 would benefit them in the sense that it would provide the fear-mongering to enact exactly what Sony wants.