US Slaps Sanctions On North Korea After Sony Cyberattack

wiredmikey writes: The United States imposed financial sanctions Friday on North Korea and several senior government officials in retaliation for a cyber attack on Sony Pictures. President Obama said he ordered the sanctions because of "the provocative, destabilizing, and repressive actions and policies (PDF) of the Government of North Korea, including its destructive, coercive cyber-related actions during November and December 2014." The activities "constitute a continuing threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States," he added, in a letter to inform congressional leaders of his executive order. The new measures allow the Treasury Department "to apply sanctions against officials of the Government of North Korea and the Workers' Party of Korea, and persons determined to be owned or controlled by, or acting for or on behalf of" these bodies.

Comments

Well...

[HBI]

Since the place is locked up as tight as Tibet once was, it's hard to imagine subsidies doing much. But yay for empty gestures!

i heard that Sony hack was insiders

[FudRucker]

not north korea, is slashdot becoming just another source for government misinformation and propaganda???

Re:i heard that Sony hack was insiders

[Ralph Wiggam]

So you heard something on the internet, and that's automatically factually correct?

Re:i heard that Sony hack was insiders

[NotDrWho]

Colin Powell assured me that it was North Korea, and that we must act NOW. And that's good enough for me!

Re:i heard that Sony hack was insiders

[SeaFox]

So you heard something on the internet, and that's automatically factually correct?

You mean like the idea Sony was hacked by North Korea? That seems to be based on as flimsy of evidence.

Re:i heard that Sony hack was insiders

[rtb61]

Dude Seriously, I mean really, Dude, seriously?! Why the bloody hell do you think we have courts, exactly because when it comes to any three letter agency from any bloody where in the world or any police forces or even those police forces with insanely bloated egos calling themselves law enforcement, because "WE DON'T FUCKING BELIEVE YOU, FUCKING PROVE IT" and the court of law is our appointed place for them to prove it (yes it has to be shouted because it has become all too blatantly obvious that they are not paying attention to basic required principles of law and justice).

Although of course American Exceptionlism demands that foreigners receive no rights with regard to the US, be it justice or even their own lives but seriously guys played out on the internet that looks really really bad to the rest of the worlds politicians especially when your political leaders, no matter how minor, waffle on like that because they believe Americans like to hear that kind of talk.

Not to forget the US has very much become the boy who cried wolf in the eyes of the general global public and low very much has to publicly prove anything it claims.

Re:i heard that Sony hack was insiders

[Dahamma]

And as the other reply alluded to, what would be the motive for anyone else besides North Korea? It would have to be a very psycho ex-employee to risk going to jail for the rest of their lives for no personal gain. The threat to bomb theaters showing the film doesn't fit the disgruntled employee theory at all.

And very targeted and embarrassing release of insider emails and documents doesn't really fit the North Korea theory very well. I mean, their *official spokesperson* released a statement (sic): "The U.S., a big country, started disturbing the Internet operation of major media of the DPRK, not knowing shame like children playing a tag." Just don't think they are going to be concerned that much with internal Hollywood politics when they can't even manage to translate one sentence into proper English.

Also, apparently the whole GoP reference and Interview theater threats only came up 3 weeks into the hack; one popular opinion is it was misdirection to muddy the investigation (if so, it sure worked!) And you'd think they'd lead with that if that was their original intent...

But anyway, at this point neither argument is very convincing. There just isn't any (public) hard evidence either way. Some claim the FBI has "proof they aren't showing" - if they want people to believe them, they might want to release that. The US government hasn't really built a very trusting relationship with its citizen these days...

LOL

[Anonymous Coward]

I seriously doubt they care. N. Korea gets all of their shit from China and China ain't going to quit supplying them just because the US government said so.

This is just another show of theatrics by the idiots in charge of the USA to make it look like they actually have some kind of authority.

Re:The way it works is ...

[drpimp]

POTUS hits NK with sanctions because, well, cause Merika that's why.

There fixed that for you.

FBI evidence is laughable

[schwit1]

http://marcrogers.org/2014/12/...

"So in conclusion, there is NOTHING here that directly implicates the North Koreans. In fact, what we have is one single set of evidence that has been stretched out into 3 separate sections, each section being cited as evidence that the other section is clear proof of North Korean involvement. As soon as you discredit one of these pieces of evidence, the whole house of cards will come tumbling down."

Re:WTF

[ColdWetDog]

Sony is like 0.00000001 of our economy. Most of us don't care if they fail and disappear entirely.

Actually, most of us would like to see them sink into obscurity. Might suck for the half dozen Slashdotters who are still using Sony Walkman, but them's the breaks.

Nothing new..

[s.petry]

I posted last week the same thoughts, even providing links to other professionals who ask "Where any evidence demonstrating that North Korea is the culprit?". I was subsequently rated a "TROLL" for linking the Wired Article and asking the question. Specifically stating like you, that it's become propaganda and facts don't seem to matter. Since people seem to be too lazy to read the Wired article (or any others) here is a 30 minute video.

The quote "If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it, and you will even come to believe it yourself." surely comes to mind, and since people don't seem to be able to discern fact from opinion these days it's an easy game for propagandists to play.

Why is it relevant? Because sanctions against the DPRK will not hurt the people in charge of the DPRK. They will have their food, wine, and women (or what ever they prefer) no matter what. North Korea can get what ever they need through China, and already does in large part. The people who will be suffering are those already starving.

Not only is the punishment unjustly targeted, but it harms exactly the _wrong_ people.

Someone call Angela Merkel

[Anonymous Coward]

I hear her phone got hacked or something.

They're sticking with this story?

[root_brewski]

I mean, it was pretty convenient timing for a government looking to distract the American public, gave Sony a feasible scapegoat for their security failings, and the only people that could contradict the story aren't about to give evidence against themselves. I guess slapping these "sanctions" on NK means they're doubling down?

Good

[SeaFox]

Justice served. Just like when we invaded Iraq for their involvement in 9/11.

just submitted comment to whitehouse.gov

[dltaylor]

As a slightly-more-in-touch segment of the population, many of us already discounted the FBI's claim against NK, and (I hope) nearly all of us now understand that it was an inside job. Let President Obama know that his sanctions just make him look foolish.

Just block their IP netblocks

[AaronW]

They only have two, 175.45.176.0/22 and 210.52.109.0/24 as far as I can tell. It's not like we'd be blocking the general population of NK.

Source.

Why Sony

[TheRecklessWanderer]

OK so NKorea subjugates an entire people, no sanctions, but mess with Sony, sanctions. What gives?