Former Anonymous Hacker: North Korea Doesn’t Have Technical Capabilities To Be Behind Sony Attack
EDITORIALS
Monsegur (right) has caused a storm with his revelations.
Patrice Greanville
[dropcap]While[/dropcap] the consummate hypocrites that populate the US political establishment blabber on about North Korea’s guilt without presenting a shred of evidence (they did the same with the downing of MH17), the media has remained silent about those who retain doubts about the origin of this by now notorious hack, including people who ought to know, like former hacker turned-FBI-informant Hector Monsegur, a member of Anonymous.
I should think that what Montagur has to say on this matter carries weight, and, at the very least, should be investigated further by some responsible media channel or government agency, but that hasn’t happened. At this point, it doesn’t look that it will, since propaganda has taken over with a fury. Thus, before delving into this CBS interview, a few basic points to clear some of the weeds:
(1) Sony is a huge multinational, with ownership roots in Japan. It’s not an “American” company, as clumsily and, I should add, probably insidiously (to catch some chauvinist vibe from the crowd) described by the President of the US and scores of other equally mistaken or misleading copycats.
Sony Corporation (ソニー株式会社 Sonī Kabushiki Gaisha?), commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Kōnan Minato, Tokyo, Japan.[3]Its diversified business is primarily focused on the electronics (TV, Gaming Consoles, Refrigerators), game, entertainment and financial services sectors.[2] (Wikipedia)
(2) The attack, such as it was, was not an act of “terrorism,” unless we want to cheapen the term to the point that taking a piss in a park is an act of terrorism. Instead, this hack, like most hacks, is an illegal act, obviously an inconvenience and a huge annoyance to the targets, but it happens thousands of times a day, and is practiced not only by hackers, but by all major nations, including the US, China, Japan, Israel, France, Britain, Russia, and so on, for a variety of reasons, from industrial espionage to acquisition of sensitive political information to self defense against the encroachment of other powers. If Internet hacking is terrorism, what does that make the NSA and its monstrous installations to listen and invade just about everyone’s privacy on this planet? Let’s have at least a pallid hooray for honesty and consistency, folks.
Lindsey Graham: a vile creature in the US senate, but the horrific truth is that he is far from unusual.
(3) Sony is not a little company, a poor damsel in distress, set upon by some colossal villain that could not take care of itself. As we all know, it’s a rich giant among giants, perfectly able to protect its privacy. On the other hand, the supposed criminal is a small, paranoid nation, long victimized by the US (none of the insufferable assholes who are always picking on North Korea care to learn or remind themselves, let alone the public they wish to influence, of the true facts underscoring the recent history of Korea since the end of WW2, as a result of US meddling in the peninsula’s affairs.) For all of its vaunted capabilities to do mischief, North Korea remains a terminally isolated and constantly besieged and harassed nation—a whipping boy for opportunistic, posturing political scum like Marco Rubio, Lindsay Graham, and their disgusting ilk. It is also conveniently forgotten that US policies toward Pyongyang are, and have been (as were and still are those toward Havana) in flagrant contravention of all international norms guaranteeing national sovereignty.
Further, there’s some public benefit in the revelations, as they prove that there is and there was a culture of thick hypocrisy and racism in the corporate corridors of Sony, among their top executives, precisely what has caused so much resentment in their ranks, a disgust shared by leading corporate proxies like Barack Obama.
December 18, 2014 9:05
BELOW, THE CBS REPORT
WASHINGTON (CBSDC/AP) — A former hacker for Anonymous doesn’t believe North Korea has the infrastructure to be behind the Sony hack attack.
Hector Monsegur told “CBS This Morning” that the communist regime doesn’t have the technical capabilities to pull off the hack.
“In my personal opinion, it’s not. Look at the bandwidth going into North Korea. I mean, the pipelines, the pipes going in, handling data, they only have one major ISP across their entire nation. That kind of information flowing at one time would have shut down North Korean Internet completely,” Monsegur explained.
He continued, “They don’t have the technical capabilities. They do have state-sponsored hackers very similar to China, very similar to Russia and very similar to our good, old USA.”
Sony Pictures Entertainment took the unprecedented step of canceling the Dec. 25 release of the Seth Rogen comedy “The Interview.”
The cancellation announced Wednesday was a startling blow to the Hollywood studio that has been shaken by hacker leaks and intimidations over the last several weeks by an anonymous group calling itself Guardians of Peace.
A U.S. official said Wednesday that federal investigators have now connected the Sony hacking to North Korea and may make an announcement in the near future. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to openly discuss an ongoing criminal case.
Monsegur stated that Sony’s hacking had to have happened over a long period of time.
“For something like this to happen, it had to happen over a long period of time. You cannot just exfiltrate one terabyte or 100 terabytes of data in a matter of weeks,” he told “CBS This Morning.” “It’s not possible. It would have taken months, maybe even years, to exfiltrate something like 100 terabytes of data without anyone noticing.”
CBS News reports that some malware was written in Korean, but Monsegur said that doesn’t mean the hackers are from North Korea.
“It doesn’t tell me much. I’ve seen Russian hackers pretending to be Indian. I’ve seen Ukrainian hackers pretending to be Peruvian. There’s hackers that pretend they’re little girls. They do this for misinformation, disinformation, covering their tracks,” he said. “Do you really think a bunch of nerds from North Korea are going to fly to New York and start blowing up movie theaters? No. It’s not realistic. It’s not about ‘The Interview.’ It’s about money. It’s a professional job.”
Monsegur added that it’s possible the Sony hack could’ve been an inside job.
A former CIA official, though, believes that North Korea could pull of this type of cyberattack.
“North Korea has significant cyber capabilities. They use them quite frequently against South Korea,” Mike Morell, a former deputy director of the CIA and current CBS News senior security contributor, told “CBS This Morning.” “For a backwards state that might be a little surprising but they also have a nuclear weapon. They are capable of achieving things when they focus on them.”
On Tuesday, the hacking group threatened violence at “the very times and places” showing “The Interview.” The Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday there was “no credible intelligence to indicate an active plot against movie theaters,” but noted it was still analyzing messages from the group. The warning did prompt law enforcement in New York and Los Angeles to address measures to ramp up security.
In Washington, White House spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said the U.S. government had no involvement in Sony’s decision, adding that artists and entertainers have the right to produce and distribute whatever content they want in the U.S.
“We take very seriously any attempt to threaten or limit artists’ freedom of speech or of expression,” Meehan said.
With a modest budget of about $40 million, “The Interview” was predicted to earn around $30 million in its opening weekend before Tuesday’s threats. Sony also stands to lose tens of millions in marketing costs already incurred.
“This attack went to the heart and core of Sony’s business — and succeeded,” said Avivah Litan, a cybersecurity analyst at research firm Gartner. “We haven’t seen any attack like this in the annals of U.S. breach history.”
Sony was also under pressure from other studios. Christmas is one of the most important box-office weekends of the year, and the threats could have scared moviegoers away. Releases include Universal’s “Unbroken,” Paramount’s “The Gambler,” and Disney’s “Into the Woods.” Sony’s musical “Annie,” also expected to be a big earner, debuts Friday.
Doug Stone, president of film industry newsletter Box Office Analyst, had predicted that “The Interview” could have made $75 to $100 million. With Sony taking about 55 percent of domestic revenues, that could mean a $41 to $55 million revenue loss, according to Stone.
Sony’s announcement was met with widespread distress across Hollywood and by others watching the unfolding attack on Sony. A former senior national security official in the George W. Bush administration said the company made the wrong decision.
“When you are confronted with a bully the idea is not to cave but to punch him in the nose,” Fran Townsend, Bush’s homeland security adviser, said Wednesday during a previously scheduled appearance in Washington. “This is a horrible, I think, horrible precedent.”
(TM and © Copyright 2014 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2014 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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