Sony Pictures will soon release a comedy about two reporters who are enlisted to assassinate North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un. The movie, entitled The Interview, combines fiction with non-fiction, bringing the venerated “dear leader” of the notoriously touchy Communist country into a silly comedy plot. But North Korea is outraged and breathing threats.
So apparently North Koreans hacked into Sony’s computer system, deleting files, stealing personal information about its employees, and downloading unreleased movies and making them available on the internet.
Notice how our inter-connected global technology doesn’t just spread the Western ideal of freedom. It can also be used to attack freedom, to the point of authoritarian governments punishing people who aren’t even citizens of their country.
From Sony Pictures hack appears to be linked to North Korea, investigators say – The Washington Post:
Investigators say a crippling cyberattack against Sony Pictures Entertainment was probably the work of North Korea, in what would be the first known case of the reclusive nation using its growing hacking capability to cause major disruptions to a company in the United States.
The attack brought Sony, one of Hollywood’s biggest studios, to a near-standstill last week, forcing employees to use paper and pens instead of their computers. Hackers also deleted files from hard drives, uploaded several unreleased films to the Internet and leaked sensitive personal information regarding thousands of Sony employees.
The cyberattack may have come in retaliation for Sony’s upcoming movie “The Interview,” a comedy built around a fictional CIA plot to kill North Korea’s 31-year-old supreme leader, Kim Jong Un, say people familiar with the probe who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is not complete.
North Korean officials have repeatedly complained about the movie — which is due to open in theaters on Christmas Day — warning of “stern” and “merciless” retaliation. On Tuesday, a North Korean government spokesman declined to comment on whether it was behind the Sony incident, according to a report by BBC News that quoted the spokesman as saying, “Wait and see.”
If investigators’ beliefs turn out to be true, the hack on Sony would mark a troubling new development at the intersection of international relations, commerce and cyberspace. . . .
In “The Interview,” Seth Rogen and James Franco play a producer and talk-show host who are headed to North Korea for an exclusive interview with Kim and are then tasked by the CIA with killing him. North Korean officials also complained to the United Nations and the United States about the film.
A State Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, declined to comment on allegations about North Korea but said: “We are of course aware of reports about North Korean concerns about this movie. While it may be difficult for [North Korea] to understand the concept, in the United States, entertainers are free to make movies of their choosing.”
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