Sony, North Korea and 'The Interview': When lack of principle meets personal cowardic

[Team Sergeant]

Come-on, they're just "actors", they only "play" tough guys. We'd expect no less from hollywood.

Zev Chafets, well done! All rounds on target buddy!


Sony, North Korea and 'The Interview': When lack of principle meets personal cowardice

By Zev Chafets
·Published December 18, 2014
·FoxNews.com

The news is out. “The Interview” will not be coming to a Cineplex near you on Christmas Day. Sony, the studio that produced Seth Rogen’s $44 million comedy about the assassination North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un has dropped it.

Sony co-chairman Amy Pascal originally greenlighted this film. But as of today, she and her corporate bosses are the bitches of North Korea’s Dear Leader--the only guy in Hollywood with the power to red light a holiday blockbuster.

Kim didn’t even have to come to Hollywood to kill the film. An anonymous threat over the Internet was sufficient to shut it down. Just to make sure, he sent copies to Regal Entertainment, Cinemark, Carmike Cinemas and AMC—the companies who own most of the movie theaters in the U.S. and to the people who live near these theaters, any one of which could turn into World Trade Center II.

America’s enemies are connoisseurs of weakness, and they have discovered the rusty link where a lack of principle meets personal cowardice.

Before cancelling, the movie folks checked with Washington. If they thought their political contributions bought them some clout with Obama, they are now disabused of that.

“We are currently checking a range of options” says a National Security council spokesperson. The FBI let it be known that it is investigating. In Hollywood lingo, the issue is under development.

Some commentators are calling the shutdown of a major motion picture by foreign enemies an unprecedented act against American freedom of expression. But that is far from true, as Flemming Rose demonstrates in his recently published book, “The Tyranny of Silence."

In 2005, Rose, an editor at the Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, published a series of caricatures lampooning the idea that Islam is a religion of peace. One drawing depicted Muhammad with a lit bomb on head. Rose’s purpose was to test whether Danish Muslim citizens were ready to accept the same kind of satirical criticism as their fellow citizens.

The answer was no. Islam forbids making images of Muhammad, no matter what is on his head. This is religious law, and since the courts in Copenhagen weren’t about to enforce it, Danish Imams launched an appeal to the faithful around the world.

The masses responded with pious alacrity. The Danish Embassy in Damascus was torched. The Danish consulate in Beirut was sacked. Mobs rioted from North Africa to Pakistan, attacking churches and individual Christians. Dozens, perhaps hundreds, died.

cont:

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/12/18/sony-north-korea-and-interview-when-lack-principle-meets-personal-cowardice/

[Badger52]

Pretty soon the money men will want a script vetted by the UN.

[MtnGoat]

I agree with your statement that SONY are being bitches. Hello Sony has a Tech Division, why not use them to hit back at DPRK? I mean do something like Anonymous would do. Hell I bet they have effect tech heads that are apart of that Group. I would also get everyone out there that helps Anonymous to do a DDoS attacks against DPRK.

Sony and our Government are sending the wrong message around the world by not showing this movie. All of them are stupid for not releasing the movie. Sony should have been acting fast from the start. Paying for Credit card and credit card fraud protection and insurance for everyone that had PII stolen. Telling everyone to change every password out there. Everyone that had their credentials stolen are or have been changed so I would drop the company doing all payroll, security, etc that had anything to do with those credentials. Pay out those contracts, but look elsewhere. It's Cyber so just go off-online for now and use an air gap network as needed. An air gap network isn't 100%, heck it's at best 80%. But they work, Human error is the biggest issue.

If this is how our Cooperate America is going to react, then our Government best get their shoot group tighten up. Because we suck right now.

[The Reaper]

Agreed. This sends a message that we'll roll over to any dictator who threatens a terrorist act through his moron cronies.

I weep for the geo-strategic mess that the next POTUS will be cleaning up.

Or making worse.

TR

[Rumblyguts]

This as just a money decision, right? My bet is that Sony's insurance company was whispering in its ear about potential lawsuits from anyone injured.

While Sony's move comes across as weak in terms of international power/politics, it also shows the power of litigation and the "your fault" mentality of much of the public.

[Roguish Lawyer]

It wasn't really Sony, it was the theaters who did it. Sony had no economic choice at that point, really.

[Box]

...maybe those theaters can run some Michael Moore documentaries in place of The Interview

[The Reaper]

It wasn't really Sony, it was the theaters who did it. Sony had no economic choice at that point, really.

How about giving the movie away to broadcast and cable TV, and airdropping 100,000 DVD copies over North Korea per week till the threats stop.

Or making a movie about a real insurrection to overthrow the Kim dynasty, as in a "how to" video, and distributing it to the population there?

Or a movie about Kim banging goats.

TR

[NF_NYC]

My bet is that Sony's insurance company was whispering in its ear about potential lawsuits from anyone injured.

This.

I don't think Sony wants to lose tens of millions of dollars by canceling a movie release and damaging their reputation even further. However, I can see insurance companies scaring Sony into doing this and Sony trying to avoid huge lawsuits from the public. What are the chances that someone can watch The Interview and want a little cash from a lawsuit claiming that he suffered emotional stress while watching the video because he feared for his life? As stupid as that sounds, it wouldn't surprise me if thousands of Americans stooped that low. Isn't it possible and wouldn't it be catastrophic for Sony?

[Team Sergeant]

An North Korea did it without firing a shot.

We are a nation of cowards.



Personally I think it's time for a 1000 missile Tomahawk strike against North Korea all targeting the dictator himself.

[DIYPatriot]

If Sony truly cared for their customers/moviegoers then they never would've released their remake of Annie. Who the hell remakes Annie? On a serious note - Sony's decision to cave in to the so-called Guardians of Peace doesn't strike me as one that came out of fear for their customers and future lawsuits stemming from their claims. Based on this article (http://www.csoonline.com/article/2859535/business-continuity/breach-insurance-might-not-cover-losses-at-sony-pictures.html), to me, it would seem that they're mitigating their risks in fear of future cyber attacks and are in some serious CYA mode. Apart from being cowards and caving to North Korea, I feel that they're terrified of losing money and this is what they have decided is their best option- which sucks, because this makes North Korea look like chess masters while we're busy trying to figure out the game of checkers.

They only had a $60 million policy to guard against any cyber-related attacks. They'll lose well beyond that amount and their policy doesn't renew until April 2015. They literally cannot afford another attack. Not only is it bad for their bottom line, it's horrible for their brand and future investors. Very early in my career, my first team lead told me that if I ever had to ask the question, "Why don't they..." or "Why do they..." - I could almost always answer "because of money". How much do you want to bet that future productions are being reconsidered, now?

Aside from the obvious, Sony faces potential lawsuits by their own employees and clients because they failed to protect their personal information (SSNs, Financial/Payroll info, etc). On top of this, Sony has several tier 1 systems that were taken down and they are still down. Once Sony recovers their systems, they still have to prove they can handle future attacks - not only to save face, but because of regulations. They will be fined (and that's the least of their worries). Apart from lost revenue (and possibly lost future deals), the recovery and technology risk mitigation costs stemming from this hack will be enormous.

I'm betting that other big time businesses are doing a serious gut-check right now. If the JP Morgan attack didn't get that ball rolling, then this should. I would imagine that AIG and other insurance companies will revise and increase policy prices over time as well - now you know why popcorn at the theater is so damn expensive. It's bad enough that one single attack cost our gov't over $4 million in credit report monitoring for the affected individuals. According to this report (http://www.gao.gov/assets/670/662227.pdf) (graph on page 2), our govt institutions recorded 61k cyber attacks in FY 2013.

The Sony attack simply cast a spotlight on something that has been happening for quite some time but most have been too busy supersizing their value meals, taking selfies and watching kitten videos on youtube to even give a damn.

Consider this:

In September 2014, Robert Anderson, executive assistant director of the Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch of the FBI told the Senate Homeland Security Committee that if a federal department believes it hasn’t been hacked, it is likely that they are simply unaware of the hack.

When Senator Coburn asked for a list of all the government hacks the panelists were aware of, he acknowledged that they may have to be discussed in a closed Senate hearing.

Furthermore, the list below does not include the large number of private-sector failures. Nevertheless, the seriousness and number of known U.S. government cybersecurity failures undercut the argument for a government-led regulatory approach to cybersecurity.


Click here (http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2014/10/continuing-federal-cyber-breaches-warn-against-cybersecurity-regulation) for more on the affected gov't agencies. The list is quite extensive and chronicles the 5Ws of each attack, but only includes the major players such as the IRS, Healthcare.gov, CIA, Fannie Mae, DOD, USACE, USN/Marine Intranet, etc

For a list of major private sector attacks in 2014 click here (http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2014/10/cyber-attacks-on-us-companies-in-2014). Lost in all this was a major attack against KeyPoint Govt Solutions (http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/keypoint-suffers-network-breach-thousands-of-fed-workers-could-be-affected/2014/12/18/e6c7146c-86e1-11e4-a702-fa31ff4ae98e_story.html), who conducts federal background checks and was brought in because their predecessor had been previously hacked. It's being reported that as many as 49k federal employees have been affected.

I guess my point is that this might finally serve as one of those "Oh shit" moments reminiscent of how Hurricane Katrina forced changes in data/disaster recovery among financial institutions and other govt & private sectors (http://www.ffiec.gov/katrina_lessons.htm). Maybe, just maybe someone will finally see that this is for real. Or not.

[Roguish Lawyer]

I wish there was a like button.

[Box]

I just happy that we still haven't had to listen to an apology for our American arrogance...

[Badger52]

I just happy that we still haven't had to listen to an apology for our American arrogance...yet.

Another Sony COA. (http://www.professionalsoldiers.com/forums/showthread.php?p=570645#post570645)

[MtnGoat]

How about giving the movie away to broadcast and cable TV, and airdropping 100,000 DVD copies over North Korea per week till the threats stop.

Or making a movie about a real insurrection to overthrow the Kim dynasty, as in a "how to" video, and distributing it to the population there?

Or a movie about Kim banging goats.

TR

I like your thinking TR!!!

Send the movie over satellite based system into NK.

[MtnGoat]

It wasn't really Sony, it was the theaters who did it. Sony had no economic choice at that point, really.

Okay if that is so true, then Sony should release it on the Internet. Allow customers to download it for a small fee since theaters won't play it. Heck for $10 I'd download it just to make a point.

[MtnGoat]

If Sony truly cared for their customers/moviegoers then they never would've released their remake of Annie. Who the hell remakes Annie? On a serious note - Sony's decision to cave in to the so-called Guardians of Peace doesn't strike me as one that came out of fear for their customers and future lawsuits stemming from their claims. Based on this article (http://www.csoonline.com/article/2859535/business-continuity/breach-insurance-might-not-cover-losses-at-sony-pictures.html), to me, it would seem that they're mitigating their risks in fear of future cyber attacks and are in some serious CYA mode. Apart from being cowards and caving to North Korea, I feel that they're terrified of losing money and this is what they have decided is their best option- which sucks, because this makes North Korea look like chess masters while we're busy trying to figure out the game of checkers.

They only had a $60 million policy to guard against any cyber-related attacks. They'll lose well beyond that amount and their policy doesn't renew until April 2015. They literally cannot afford another attack. Not only is it bad for their bottom line, it's horrible for their brand and future investors. Very early in my career, my first team lead told me that if I ever had to ask the question, "Why don't they..." or "Why do they..." - I could almost always answer "because of money". How much do you want to bet that future productions are being reconsidered, now?

Aside from the obvious, Sony faces potential lawsuits by their own employees and clients because they failed to protect their personal information (SSNs, Financial/Payroll info, etc). On top of this, Sony has several tier 1 systems that were taken down and they are still down. Once Sony recovers their systems, they still have to prove they can handle future attacks - not only to save face, but because of regulations. They will be fined (and that's the least of their worries). Apart from lost revenue (and possibly lost future deals), the recovery and technology risk mitigation costs stemming from this hack will be enormous.

I'm betting that other big time businesses are doing a serious gut-check right now. If the JP Morgan attack didn't get that ball rolling, then this should. I would imagine that AIG and other insurance companies will revise and increase policy prices over time as well - now you know why popcorn at the theater is so damn expensive. It's bad enough that one single attack cost our gov't over $4 million in credit report monitoring for the affected individuals. According to this report (http://www.gao.gov/assets/670/662227.pdf) (graph on page 2), our govt institutions recorded 61k cyber attacks in FY 2013.

The Sony attack simply cast a spotlight on something that has been happening for quite some time but most have been too busy supersizing their value meals, taking selfies and watching kitten videos on youtube to even give a damn.

Consider this:



Click here (http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2014/10/continuing-federal-cyber-breaches-warn-against-cybersecurity-regulation) for more on the affected gov't agencies. The list is quite extensive and chronicles the 5Ws of each attack, but only includes the major players such as the IRS, Healthcare.gov, CIA, Fannie Mae, DOD, USACE, USN/Marine Intranet, etc

For a list of major private sector attacks in 2014 click here (http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2014/10/cyber-attacks-on-us-companies-in-2014). Lost in all this was a major attack against KeyPoint Govt Solutions (http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/keypoint-suffers-network-breach-thousands-of-fed-workers-could-be-affected/2014/12/18/e6c7146c-86e1-11e4-a702-fa31ff4ae98e_story.html), who conducts federal background checks and was brought in because their predecessor had been previously hacked. It's being reported that as many as 49k federal employees have been affected.

I guess my point is that this might finally serve as one of those "Oh shit" moments reminiscent of how Hurricane Katrina forced changes in data/disaster recovery among financial institutions and other govt & private sectors (http://www.ffiec.gov/katrina_lessons.htm). Maybe, just maybe someone will finally see that this is for real. Or not.

DYI - Really great post!!

Yes this will change they way many KEY in how the world powers view our Cooperate Geopolitical policy to guard against any cyber-related attacks. Like you said, other Companies; Target, Neiman Marcus, eBay, U.S. Investigations Services and Apple iCloud to name a few. But how did they held it. Yes, their hacks were not related to a movie covering the assassination of a world leader either. IMO this will change how the key Cyber Actors view Cyber-Warfare now with the U.S. Cooperate American you best wake up and smell the coffee and IT just shit the FAN!!

Also FBI released this too: FBI SONY UPDATE (http://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/update-on-sony-investigation)

[SF_BHT]

I like your thinking

Send the movie over satellite based system into NK.

Think before you post..... Do you think that anyone but the 1% (ruling topknots ) have sat tv ? We would have to train a legion of chipmunks and glue on sat systems and air drop them all over NK and hope someone has a TV to connect them to with electricity.


:p:eek::p

[MR2]

I understand that Al Sharpton chastised Sony Exec's for caving to N.Korea after caving to the Race-baiting Hustlers Union.

[craigepo]

I wonder what would happen if someone released a youtube video of the North Korean leader having sexual intercourse with, say, Dennis Rodman?

[CSB]

According to Wikipedia (reliable?) North Korea has about 2,500 IP addresses.

For the whole country.

Whether true or not, just how many wires can come out of DPRK for an electronic link, and where would they terminate? Russia? China?

It seems that there is a very narrow choke point for ISP's to launch anything from North Korea.

[alelks]

When's the last time you saw a North Korean Terrorist, especially on US soil?

[Badger52]

According to Wikipedia (reliable?) North Korea has about 2,500 IP addresses.

For the whole country.

Whether true or not, just how many wires can come out of DPRK for an electronic link, and where would they terminate? Russia? China?

It seems that there is a very narrow choke point for ISP's to launch anything from North Korea.If our folks can make a boat-anchor out of Syria's core layer by accident, probably wouldn't take much to do the same here if it went that route.

FWIW, believe I'd read somewhere (although can't find link) that source IP's for the Sony hack were China. (Not that they did it, but that's the Norks pass thru - NFI.)

[The Reaper]

When's the last time you saw a North Korean Terrorist, especially on US soil?

Red Dawn?

Olympus has Fallen?

Seriously though, I doubt the NKs did this on their own. They might have PAID for it though, and the Chinese or Russians did the actual work.

TR

[Sohei]

One of the things I hate the most about this whole thing is that now...the bad haired bully looks even greater in the eyes of his beholden followers. He showed the great USA....

I hate the fact that they caved into their demands. It would almost be comical if it wasn't truly happening.

[Flagg]

Red Dawn?

Olympus has Fallen?

Seriously though, I doubt the NKs did this on their own. They might have PAID for it though, and the Chinese or Russians did the actual work.

TR

I couldn't possibly agree more.

Cash is a lot different than capability.

But at the very least it provides a very interesting and concerning example to dissect of a traditional illicit network extending into the digital realm, if only by paid proxy.

[Flagg]

Think before you post..... Do you think that anyone but the 1% (ruling topknots ) have sat tv ? We would have to train a legion of chipmunks and glue on sat systems and air drop them all over NK and hope someone has a TV to connect them to with electricity.


:p:eek::p

I wonder if there'd be any value in dubbing it into Farsi/Dari for Iranians to watch?

Everyone there has a sat dish and they are good mates with the NKs. :)

[Team Sergeant]

Red Dawn?

Olympus has Fallen?

Seriously though, I doubt the NKs did this on their own. They might have PAID for it though, and the Chinese or Russians did the actual work.

TR

I agree. The North Koreans could not even get a land based missile to launch and everyone thinks they possess the intellectual capability to launch this sort of internet attack? I think al sharpton would look like a genius in N Korea.

This attack came from China, just ask the NSA.....

[Sdiver]

I agree. The North Koreans could not even get a land based missile to launch and everyone thinks they possess the intellectual capability to launch this sort of internet attack? I think al sharpton would look like a genius in N Korea.

This attack came from China, just ask the NSA.....

I saw a quote the other day that said, "As far as nation states goes, North Korea is the equivalent of a short bus."

:D

[Badger52]

I agree. The North Koreans could not even get a land based missile to launch and everyone thinks they possess the intellectual capability to launch this sort of internet attack? I think al sharpton would look like a genius in N Korea.

This attack came from China, just ask the NSA.....+1 Whereas China has post-secondary type programs through grad-level stuff devoted specifically for this line of effort, and have had for years.

As they say, somewhere out there a true believer is training...

[mugwump]

There are several non-state actors who are capable of the Sony Attack.

[DIYPatriot]

I'm not sure if NK acted alone or not. What I am sure of is that cyber terror is a game changer. It literally redefines the battle space. Whether you're an MIT grad working for a 3 letter agency and knocking down $250k per year to advise and assist private businesses OR you're an educated and highly motivated jihadi working from a bombed apartment building in Raqqa, you can go to war virtually anywhere against anyone at any time.

Some of you may recall a cyber attack that began around Feb 1998. Over 500 systems (gov't and private businesses) were compromised by a classic intrusion-style attack. In this particular event, the hackers probed around undetected until they found vulnerabilities and then exploited those vulnerabilities to steal sensitive data as well as create a back door that allowed them to control and plan future attacks.

At that time, many speculated it was Iraq, Iran, Russia and so on. The attack seemed to originate from various countries (France, Israel, Germany, Taiwan, etc). Ghosting and spoofing from off-shore anti-American countries helped make this possible (that's a whole 'nother topic). After the dust settled and the investigation was completed, it was discovered that two teenagers from California and one from Israel were the culprits.

For more details, try searching for Solar Sunrise. I'm on the road doing the Christmas thing right now. Just wanted to offer a devils advocate POV to the discussion. And one other thing, for those seeking more info on the topic of cyber warfare, this thesis offers an easily digestible overview of the topic (http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB424/docs/Cyber-017.pdf). I came across it years ago while working for a client to develop a real-time secured data exchange system for stock trading. Talk about an industry that gets attacked often.

[Badger52]

I'm not sure if NK acted alone or not. What I am sure of is that cyber terror is a game changer.No question about that and not just with financial impacts. According to Snowden, the NSA once attempted to install a port on Syria's core infrastructure simply to monitor the email traffic to & fro; but they accidentally tanked the router. Which is like sawing off a tree limb while sitting on it; so they couldn't go back & fix it. And with Syria protesting loudly that "hey we really didn't do this to our own country" the fallback was "well, we can always blame it on Israel." So false-flag approaches are a serious chessboard.
:munchin

[The Reaper]

Excellent look at one of the most likely suspects.

TR

Did China Help North Korea Hack Sony?

Gordon G. Chang

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonchang/2014/12/21/did-china-help-north-korea-hack-sony/print/

A "senior administration official" told CNN yesterday that Washington had asked Beijing for assistance in connection with the hacking of Sony Pictures Entertainment, a unit of Sony Corporation. "We have discussed this issue with the Chinese to share information, express our concerns about this attack, and to ask for their cooperation," the official told the network.

To enlist the Chinese to its side, the White House has avoided the ticklish issue of Beijing's assistance to the Kim regime. So at the moment the Obama administration is blaming North Korea-and only North Korea-for the incident, which Michael Lynton, chief executive of the Sony unit, termed "the worst cyberattack in American history."

On Friday, the FBI issued its now-famous statement accusing the North. The agency, in that statement, did not attribute responsibility to any other state. Similarly, Representative Adam Schiff, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, told the Daily Beast that he heard nothing about China's complicity at a Friday classified briefing about the Sony incident.

President Obama himself weighed in on the issue. "We've got no indication that North Korea was acting in conjunction with another country," he said in response to a question at his end-of-year press conference Friday.

So did the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, as the North calls itself, pull off the audacious attacks on its own?

The evidence suggests Beijing had to have been aware of North Korea's hacking of Sony as soon as it began and was undoubtedly complicit in that crime.

Why? An intelligence official, speaking anonymously to Fox News this week,stated the "final stage of the attack" was launched outside North Korea. Ars Technica reports that the attacks originated from Chinese IP addresses.
Nonetheless, there is, at least in open sources at this time, insufficient information to make definitive conclusions about China as the origin of the hacking. Yet the preponderance of evidence indicates the hackers launched their raid from Chinese soil. As David Sanger of the New York Times stated on Wednesday in an article discussing what American officials knew about the incident, "Much of North Korea's hacking is done from China."

In line with Sanger's statement, there has been increasing speculation that North Korea's Unit 121, a cell of elite hackers, was the organization that mauled Sony. The group is known to be responsible for at least some of the 2013 attacks on South Korean businesses. The code used in those attacks resembles the code employed in the Sony assault.

(Cont. at link above)

[Penn]

How is this no an "Act of War"? First the attack, then the threat.....or, are we incapable of a response?

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-12-21/north-korea-threatens-greater-pain-if-punished-over-sony-hacking

[Box]

Dr. Evil had a much better response to n0rth k0rea than the official US response...

[DIYPatriot]

That's a good article, TR. Thanks for posting. Last year, th3j35t3r wrote an article in reference to NK's restrictive internet (http://www.jesterscourt.cc/2013/03/31/wierd-but-wired-north-koreas-not-so-internet/) and how they've grown their own army of hackers.
Before 2010, the country had no full-fledged online link to the rest of the planet. In a uniquely North Korean bit of absurdity, the government most likely maintained its foreign-facing official website by telling subordinates in Japan or China what to put on it.

It was a nuclear nation with no stable Internet access.

Also believed to have relatively free rein is the DPRK’s growing army of hackers. To a large extent, it’s a child army. According to a prominent defector, there’s a “pyramid-like prodigy recruiting system” that plucks bright students for the regime’s “cyberwarrior” program. They allegedly train for years (with stints in Russia or China for cyberwarfare master classes) before joining the ominously named “Unit 121” hacker squad in Pyongyang. Other than that, the only suspected users of the global Web are a very small number of government bureaucrats. After all, someone has to keep up the DPRK’s social media presence.

In 2012, NK created it's second link to the 'net (http://www.northkoreatech.org/2012/04/08/dprk-gets-second-link-to-internet/). Prior to that, their only link to the outside world was through China. By building their own internet and only having one or two routes to the rest of civilization, not only to they decide what their population gets to see, but they also get to hide behind China's "Great Firewall". This almost guarantees them a safe haven from outside attacks.

Ever since Star Joint Venture launched the country’s first fully-fledged Internet connection in 2010, North Korean traffic has flowed across the country’s northern border and through an interconnection with China Netcom. China Netcom is one of China’s largest Internet backbone providers.

From a 2011 interview with a NK defector, the Chinese also serve as a training academy for NK's hackers (http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2011/06/201162081543573839.html). He goes on to list 5 reasons why the north is so heavily interested in developing cyber warfare capabilities.

"First, cybermilitary strength is cost effective. With the North's deteriorating economic situation, it cannot compete with South Korea or the US in building conventional military army, naval or air forces.

"Grooming prodigies, deploying them, setting up internet, buying programmes, and providing conditions for them to operate in China or another third country is considerably cheaper than buying new weapons or fighter jets which cost hundreds of millions of dollars," Kim said.

"Second, North Korea is extremely confident of its software development capabilities, as cracking passwords within a secured system and finding patches within networks are all based on mathematical capabilities.

"Third, cyberstrength provides higher utility than any other naval, air, or army force. A state may possess tens of thousands of foot soldiers or hundreds of jets - but rarely would be able to use them, "especially in this day and age".

"But cybermanpower - once you have that established you can steal any classifed information from enemy states, incapacitate their servers and cause social panic through psychological warfare. It's high in utility in terms of creating different types of confusion and chaos - and that is cyberwarfare's biggest merit," said Kim.

"Fourth, cyber warfare is asymmetrically advantageous for the North. None of its servers are yet connected to the internet, which makes it immune to cyberattacks. But South Korea and other enemy countries, or any other country for that matter, will undergo major chaos if their computer system were to crash. For this very reason North Korea is fascinated with cyberwarfare."

"Finally, North Korea has recognised the internet's inherent weakness from its very inception in the mid-1990s. It realised that, as long as it maintained an attack network, it could easily hack into strategic targets with considerable speed. That's why they were driven to aggressively engage China in military exchanges to quickly build up a cyberforce of 500 hackers.

The Chinese have the keys, taught the kid how to drive and even tossed in some gas money. Some are chastising Zero for seeking assistance, to prevent future attacks, from the Chinese (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/12/21/us-reportedly-asks-china-to-help-curb-north-korea-cyberattack-abilities/). That may be his only option right now because the NSA is too busy spying on us and the FBI is still trying to figure out who hacked in to Jennifer Lawrence's nude photos (thanks, btw to whoever did that - she's smokin' hot) and the DHS is probably too busy chasing down mom & pop stores that infringe upon the Kansas City Royals' logo. Meanwhile, our strongest response to date is a SNL skit with Dr. Evil.

[Badger52]

Does the administration still operate by Dicta Jarrett; i.e., "first, do nothing stupid" ? (which they routinely violate)

They & those nurturing them may get the attribution info; it may not fit in with their pre-planned answer to the question.

[Badger52]

Published December 22, 2014
Associated Press

DEVELOPING – North Korea was experiencing widespread Internet outages on Monday, and one expert said the country's online access was "totally down."

It was not immediately clear if the Internet connectivity problems were an act of retribution for a major intrusion at Sony Pictures Entertainment that the FBI last week linked to North Korea.

President Obama on Friday said the U.S. government would respond but didn't say how.

The White House declined to comment Monday. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters that of the federal government responses, "some will be seen, some may not be seen."
Rest of breaking story at this link. (http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2014/12/22/north-korea-experiencing-widespread-internet-outages/)

Damn, I was relying on ordering a last minute Christmas present from Amanork.

[Sdiver]

Published December 22, 2014
Associated Press

DEVELOPING – North Korea was experiencing widespread Internet outages on Monday, and one expert said the country's online access was "totally down."

It was not immediately clear if the Internet connectivity problems were an act of retribution for a major intrusion at Sony Pictures Entertainment that the FBI last week linked to North Korea.

President Obama on Friday said the U.S. government would respond but didn't say how.

The White House declined to comment Monday. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters that of the federal government responses, "some will be seen, some may not be seen."



Rest of breaking story at this link. (http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2014/12/22/north-korea-experiencing-widespread-internet-outages/)

Damn, I was relying on ordering a last minute Christmas present from Amanork.

Meh, they're just signed up with COMCAST.
I wouldn't loose any sleep over it.

:munchin

[Badger52]

Meh, they're just signed up with COMCAST.
I wouldn't loose any sleep over it.

:munchinLOL.

(Slick TV salesman): "Tired of your old phone company's DSL....?"

[DIYPatriot]

From Badger's posted article:

"We aren't going to discuss, you know, publicly operational details about the possible response options or comment on those kind of reports in anyway except to say that as we implement our responses, some will be seen, some may not be seen," State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said.

In other words, they're not going to discuss any operational details because no one in Hollywood is lining up to make a movie about our very own secret little geek squad. For starters, it didn't involve any SOF guys in stealth choppers and even if it did, the movie makers would be too scared to release a film chronicling the fall of the North Korean internet and how it literally shut down all 17 North Korean citizens who have been allowed to possess and use any form of electronic devices manufactured after 1923.

Joking aside, I'd much rather our response be carried out by actions than words. In an era where everyone would rather sign a book deal and pay attention to the dollar amount in their contract as opposed to the NDAs they signed while serving, I'll take this as a positive. Here's to hoping we don't show too many of our cards in the process.

[Badger52]

...literally shut down all 17 North Korean citizens who have been allowed to possess and use any form of electronic devices manufactured after 1923.OK, now that's very well put right there. :D

So just from perusing various articles, apparently passing through (or hovering & playing with) the Chicom gateway wasn't a problem. 'Course the Chinese could be just playing both sides & simply flipped a switch.

Ho. Ho. Ho.

[DIYPatriot]

'Course the Chinese could be just playing both sides & simply flipped a switch.


That's where I'd place my money. It was just a few months ago that our gov't charged 5 Chinese military hackers (http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/us-charges-five-chinese-military-hackers-cyber-espionage-against-us-corporations-and-labor) for their role in stealing trade secrets and other information from us.

“For too long, the Chinese government has blatantly sought to use cyber espionage to obtain economic advantage for its state-owned industries,” said FBI Director James B. Comey. “The indictment announced today is an important step. But there are many more victims, and there is much more to be done. With our unique criminal and national security authorities, we will continue to use all legal tools at our disposal to counter cyber espionage from all sources.”

“State actors engaged in cyber espionage for economic advantage are not immune from the law just because they hack under the shadow of their country’s flag,” said John Carlin, Assistant Attorney General for National Security. “Cyber theft is real theft and we will hold state sponsored cyber thieves accountable as we would any other transnational criminal organization that steals our goods and breaks our laws.”

“This 21st century burglary has to stop,” said David Hickton, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania. “This prosecution vindicates hard working men and women in Western Pennsylvania and around the world who play by the rules and deserve a fair shot and a level playing field.”

[DIYPatriot]

I'm sure that Russia, NK, Iran, China and many others are just shaking in their boots.

President Barack Obama on Wednesday authorized a new U.S. government approach to deterring cyberattacks: financial sanctions against malicious overseas hackers and companies that knowingly benefit from the fruits of cyberespionage.

The latter category could include state-owned corporations in Russia, China and elsewhere, setting the stage for major diplomatic friction if the sanctions are employed in that way.

The sanctions, which would name the targets, seize their U.S. funds and ban them from the American financial system, would also apply to “a corporation that knowingly profits from stolen trade secrets,” the White House said. U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials have long possessed evidence that state-owned companies in China and elsewhere are complicit in economic cyberespionage that targets the intellectual property of Western companies, but they have largely been unable to act on it.

...


The administration has “really thought about how to make this painful to the beneficiaries,” of cyberspying, said James Lewis, a cyber expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “They’ve gotten away with this for a long time, so making them suffer a little for stealing is a good idea.”

...

In February, James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, listed cyberattacks as the most pressing danger facing the country, and he said the cyberthreat from Russia “is more severe than we had previously assessed.”:rolleyes:

The Article (http://www.thenewstribune.com/2015/04/01/3719492_obama-signs-order-creating-new.html?rh=1)

[The Reaper]

Wouldn't just assassinating them be a lot better?

TR