North Korea has responded to the FBI’s claims that they were responsible for the enormous hack of Sony’s internal documents, calling it a “groundless allegation.”
In a foreign ministry statement reported by the BBC, North Korea alluded to the recently released U.S. Senate report on CIA torture: “Without resorting to such tortures as were used by the U.S. CIA, we have means to prove that this incident has nothing to do with us” the statement read.
North Korea has proposed a “joint inquiry” into the hack, saying the US faces “serious consequences” if they reject this offer.
In a statement released Friday, the FBI presented their evidence for accusing North Korea as such:
· 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. For example, there were similarities in specific lines of code, encryption algorithms, data deletion methods, and compromised networks.
· The FBI also observed significant overlap between the infrastructure used in this attack and other malicious cyber activity the U.S. Government has previously linked directly to North Korea. For example, the FBI discovered that several Internet protocol (IP) addresses associated with known North Korean infrastructure communicated with IP addresses that were hardcoded into the data deletion malware used in this attack.
· Separately, the tools used in the SPE attack have similarities to a cyber attack in March of last year against South Korean banks and media outlets, which was carried out by North Korea.
Sony pulled The Interview from release after threats were made against theaters that would show the film, which details a fictional attempt to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
President Obama on Friday labelled that decision “a mistake.”
“We cannot have a society in which some dictator someplace can start imposing censorship here in the United States,” Obama said.
Sony has since said they had not pulled the film for good, only complying with theaters who felt the risk of attack was too high.
They say their intent is not to scrap the film, but to have it released “on a different platform.”
UPDATE
U.S. National Security spokesman Mark Stroh told the BBC later on Saturday that Washington remains confident North Korea was behind the attack.
“If the North Korean government wants to help, they can admit their culpability and compensate Sony for the damages this attack caused,” Stroh said.
