Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

Cyberwarfare

North Korea Denies Carrying out Hack Attack on Sony Pictures

North Korea denied Sunday involvement in a brazen cyber attack on Sony Pictures, but praised it as a “righteous deed” potentially orchestrated by supporters furious over a Hollywood comedy depicting a fictional CIA plot to assassinate leader Kim Jong-Un.

North Korea denied Sunday involvement in a brazen cyber attack on Sony Pictures, but praised it as a “righteous deed” potentially orchestrated by supporters furious over a Hollywood comedy depicting a fictional CIA plot to assassinate leader Kim Jong-Un.

“The hacking into the Sony Pictures might be a righteous deed of the supporters and sympathizers with the (North) in response to its appeal,” the North’s top military body, the National Defense Commission, told the state-run KCNA news agency.

“The Interview”, starring Seth Rogen and James Franco as two journalists recruited by the CIA to assassinate Kim, has infuriated Pyongyang, which earlier warned of “merciless retaliation” against what it called a “wanton act of terror”.

The hacking attack on the US movie studio late last month is known to have included the leaking of sensitive personal information on some 47,000 individuals, including celebrities.

North Korea FlagThe attack also made unreleased Sony films available on illegal file-sharing websites, with media reports indicating the pattern matches past attacks carried out by the isolated state.

The NDC rejected the media reports as “false rumour”, but went on to slam Sony for producing the film, which it said was “hurting the dignity of the supreme leadership”.

“We do not know where in America the Sony Pictures is situated and for what wrongdoings it became the target of the attack nor we feel the need to know about it,” the NDC spokesman said.

“But what we clearly know is that the Sony Pictures is the very one which was going to produce a film abetting a terrorist act while hurting the dignity of the supreme leadership of the (North),” he said.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

The isolated state has “a great number of supporters and sympathizers… all over the world”, including those behind the attack on Sony, he warned.

‘All hope will leave you’

On Friday, in the latest cyber threat, Sony Pictures staff received an email claiming to be from the same hackers who earlier breached the firm’s computer network, reportedly with warnings that they and their families were “in danger.”

The email from a group calling itself Guardians of Peace (GOP) also warned that “all hope will leave you and Sony Pictures will collapse”, according to the industry journal Variety.

Sony Pictures described the hack attack a “brazen” effort, but downplayed the report that the North was behind the it, saying it did not yet know the full extent of the “malicious” security breach.

The North has been accused of staging a series of cyber attacks on South Korea in recent years, including a major assault on the South’s banks and broadcasters in 2013.

“The Interview” is to be released on Christmas Day in the US, but reportedly will not be screened in South Korea due to sensitivity of the issue.

Pyongyang has often bristled at foreign TV shows or films featuring the ruling Kim family or political situation.

In August, it also slammed a new British TV drama series featuring its atomic weapons program, urging London to scrap the “slanderous farce” if it wants to maintain diplomatic ties.

The Kim dynasty has ruled the impoverished but nuclear-armed state for more than six decades with an iron fist and pervasive personality cult.

Related ReadingIndustry Reactions to Devastating Sony Hack

Related ReadingSony Hackers Dump Personal Data on 47,000 People, Celebs Included

Written By

AFP 2023

Click to comment

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

Join security experts as they discuss ZTNA’s untapped potential to both reduce cyber risk and empower the business.

Register

Join Microsoft and Finite State for a webinar that will introduce a new strategy for securing the software supply chain.

Register

Expert Insights

Related Content

Cybercrime

The changing nature of what we still generally call ransomware will continue through 2023, driven by three primary conditions.

Cybercrime

A recently disclosed vBulletin vulnerability, which had a zero-day status for roughly two days last week, was exploited in a hacker attack targeting the...

Cyberwarfare

WASHINGTON - Cyberattacks are the most serious threat facing the United States, even more so than terrorism, according to American defense experts. Almost half...

Cybercrime

Patch Tuesday: Microsoft calls attention to a series of zero-day remote code execution attacks hitting its Office productivity suite.

Cybercrime

No one combatting cybercrime knows everything, but everyone in the battle has some intelligence to contribute to the larger knowledge base.

Cyberwarfare

Websites of German airports, administration bodies and banks were hit by DDoS attacks attributed to Russian hacker group Killnet

Cybercrime

On the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, cybersecurity companies summarize the cyber operations they have seen and their impact.

Cyberwarfare

Ask any three people to define cyberwar and you will get three different answers. But as global geopolitics worsen and aggressive cyberattacks increase, this...