FBI Blames North Korea for Cyberattack

The FBI today accused North Korea of being behind the cyberattack that prompted Sony Pictures to cancel the release of “The Interview,” a development raising fears among entertainers that the free speech rights of Americans are threatened.

“As a result of our investigation, and in close cooperation with other U.S. government departments and agencies, the FBI now has enough information to conclude that the North Korean government is responsible for these actions,” according to an FBI statement.

Before the statement was issued, actor George Clooney said he and his agent circulated a petition in support of Sony after it became the victim of a the cyberattack and before it cancelled the Christmas Day release of “The Interview,” but none of the many entertainment figures who were asked to sign it agreed to do so.

The thrust of the petition circulated by Clooney and his agent, Bryan Lourd, was “we’re not going to give in to a ransom,” Clooney said.

He further accused the press of abdicating its responsibility to focusing on salacious Sony email links rather than investigating the hackers.

“A good portion of the press abdicated its real duty. They played the fiddle while Rome burned, he told Deadline Hollywood. “There was a real story going on. With just a little bit of work, you could have found out that it wasn’t just probably North Korea; it was North Korea,” he said.

The FBI, in effectively confirming Clooney’s assertion, said it found telltale signs in the cyberattack.

“The FBI has determined that the intrusion into (Sony Pictures Entertainment’s) network consisted of the deployment of destructive malware and the theft of proprietary information, as well as employees’ personally identifiable information and confidential communications ...” the FBI statement said.

“Technical analysis of the data deletion malware used in this attack revealed links to other malware that the FBI knows North Korean actors previously developed.”

• City News service
• Photo Credit: Shutterstock