U.S. Officials Believe North Korea Contracted Foreign Hackers For Sony Job

The Sony job was made public a couple of week ago when the world found out that computer systems at Sony Pictures Entertainment were knocked down by a major cyberattack. Then followed a major controversy regarding a movie called “The Interview,” but now that the movie is out anyway, the focus has shifted towards finding out what really happened. FBI has already named North Korea as the culprit, and a new report suggests that the supremely isolated country may have seeked foreign help for this job.

Citing an official “close to the investigation,” Reuters reports today that U.S. officials believe North Korea contracted hackers from outside the country for the cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment. The official quoted in the report says North Korea doesn’t have the capability to “conduct some elements of the sophisticated campaign by itself,” so perhaps it went looking for outside help.

North Korea has often been blamed for cyberattacks, if not at U.S. companies and institutions, then against neighbouring South Korea. It still maintains that it had nothing to do with the Sony Pictures Entertainment hack and even called for a joint investigation with the U.S.

Meanwhile the FBI reiterated its earlier stance that North Korea is “responsible for the theft and destruction of data on the network of Sony Pictures Entertainment.” According to the report U.S. officials are still investigating whether North Korea really did contract hackers from outside the country.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: General
Tags: cyberattacks, Sony Pictures