Cyber War

[Indy]

Obviously the US has been hacking into country's systems for decades, but it has all been pretty under-the-radar for most of the world. So, with the news today it appears the US is taking out the internet in NK, and that it is in response to the Sony Hack and all that aftermath, is this a new kind of legitimate warfare? If so, at what point are we truly at war with them?



On the extreme end, maybe this will move towards A Taste of Armageddon.

[carey]

Anyone read the Gawker piece on how there are a lot of cyber security experts that don't think it was North Korea? I'm inclined to agree. It doesn't add up. The movie wasn't mentioned till the media latched onto it. I think this is an inside job. The only evidence the US has so far are a few IP addresses formerly associated with NK. That means very little.

[Indy]

I have only seen things in passing. But I find it hard to believe that it would just be for movie publicity. I guess it could be people in Sony (or formerly) that are disgruntled. But what are they gaining from this?

[carey]

No. I think it's a former / disgruntled employee. I don't think Sony wanted this to happen.

[Dan H]

I would have leaned against that Carey but now it sounds like they're going to release it on Christmas after all. Hmmmmmmm.





Just sayin' . . . . :p

[Indy]

No. I think it's a former / disgruntled employee. I don't think Sony wanted this to happen.

So the only benefit to committing these crimes is to point out that Sony doesn't think highly of some celebrities? Or are you thinking there is a specific leak that will happen soon that will bring down Sony Pictures?

[carey]

I think the aim was to hack their servers and disrupt things. They couldn't have anticipated getting a hundred terabytes of material. I think they are still going through it & will release more and more over time. Read that Gawker article that cites a few security experts. They make some compelling points. Also the English in the e-mails is comically bad, almost as if they are just trying to speak English poorly on purpose. This whole thing smells rotten to me & I've never been a truther or conspiracy nut.

[Superbone]

I wondered from the beginning if it was really the North Koreans. I figured it was somebody else trying to hide it under that shadow. Then I was shocked to read that it really was but now wouldn't be suprised at all if it never was.

[Shabazz]

No. I think it's a former / disgruntled employee. I don't think Sony wanted this to happen.

So the only benefit to committing these crimes is to point out that Sony doesn't think highly of some celebrities? Or are you thinking there is a specific leak that will happen soon that will bring down Sony Pictures?

There was a lot more to the Sony hack than leaking emails. They destroyed the company's IT infrastructure. It was pretty malicious.

[Indy]

So it was just to cause harm, with no financial or political gain?

[Shabazz]

Here's a good read on the subject. I can't speculate about the motivation, but the severity goes beyond just embarrassing Sony:

http://www.slate.com/articles/technolog ... rists.html

What’s remarkable is the sheer destruction leveled at Sony and its employees. For perhaps the first time, a major American company really did suffer a worst-case cyberassault scenario.

While tabloid rags are salivating over the juicy Hollywood gossip and Aaron Sorkin is writing impassioned polemics against revealing stolen information, these hackers, whoever they are, genuinely do deserve to be termed cyberterrorists. Many attacks are for financial gain or revelation of valuable or salacious information. The latter is a factor here, but the overriding aim seems to have been to damage Sony Pictures and its employees to the point at which they could barely even function. To my knowledge, there has never before been a cyberattack of this scale. The Guardians of Peace didn’t just steal 100 TB (an ungodly amount) of sensitive data, they also used “wiper malware” to more or less destroy Sony’s internal systems, leaving its entire infrastructure crippled.

[carey]

Another interesting thing is the Sony vs. Sony Pictures issue. Sony itself has been strangely quiet about all of this, viewing it mainly as an attack on Hollywood and refusing to comment. Yes, Sony Pictures is based here and run here but we know where all the money comes from. So this is a bit strange to me.

[carey]

Here's a Wired article on some of the inconsistencies: http://www.wired.com/2014/12/evidence-o ... k-is-thin/ (Read this one first.)

Here's the Gawker one: http://gawker.com/a-lot-of-smart-people ... 1672899940

[Nodack]

No. I think it's a former / disgruntled employee. I don't think Sony wanted this to happen.

There is news today that that is exactly what happened.