Sony hack a 'serious national security matter': White House

[Bosonic]

Source: AFP

Cyber attacks that ultimately prompted Sony Pictures to scrap the release of a madcap comedy about North Korea are a "serious national security matter," the White House said Thursday.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest declined to confirm that North Korea was linked to the cyber attack on the movie giant over the planned release of "The Interview," about a fictional plot to assassinate North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un.

"The president considers this to be a serious national security matter," Earnest added, saying the attack that saw hackers gain access to a trove of internal Sony documents and unreleased movies was carried out by a "sophisticated actor."

Sony cancelled the film's release after US theater chains said they would not screen "The Interview."

Read more: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/sony-hack-serious-national-security-matter-white-house-184434128.html#DdqBmUw

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Sony hack: White House views attack as security issue

A cyber attack on Sony Pictures that forced the cancellation of a major film release is being treated as a national security matter, the White House says.

Spokesman Josh Earnest said the US believed the hacking was the work of a "sophisticated actor" - but refused to confirm if North Korea was responsible.

Sony withdrew The Interview, a new comedy film about North Korea's leader, after threats from hackers.

Hackers have already released sensitive information stored on Sony computers.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-30538154

[AtheistCrusader]

1. Sony? National security?

Man, someone's pissed about the temporary loss in profitability for sony...

[Major Nikon]

2. Imagine the investigation

[benld74]

5. Sony NO Security

[staggerleem]

3. Sophisticated Actor? Not necessarily.

This did NOT have to be such a sophisticated hack - in fact, if they have some help from China (remember, Sony is a Japanese company, and there's little love between Japan & China), they could put together a big enough crew to do a "brute force" hack. If 10 million people each try 100 different passwords, that's a billion tries. And you just KNOW that some damn fool is using the password "12345678" or "Password", so I don't think there's any reason to believe that these hackers are at all "sophisticated".

[DeSwiss]

4. Of course it is.

- They stole the plot from the CIA ''Wet Dreams'' vault.

[center][/center]

[Bragi]

6. Fearful America not good for profits?

I think this event shows that the fear-based national security state enjoyed by Americans since 9/11 might not be marketplace-friendly.

Americans are now apparently so fearful that they can be intimidated by threats from a terrorist group that couldn't organize a plane ride out of NK, let alone mount an attack on thousands of movie houses across America.

No matter, just say terrorism, and scared America decides to stay home.

Sp preserving the security state now means get your money out of anything that is based on people gathering for movies, concerts, sports events, whatever. Let's just stay home and play with our keyboards, where we think it's still safe.

[jakeXT]

7. I think I can see the light from the computer monitor ...

[uppityperson]

8. I don't understand how this is a serious security issue. Hackers exist and hack places, but how is

Sony such a security thing?

[former9thward]

10. Do you plan on waiting until they crash planes into each other?

[uppityperson]

11. What? I do not understand what that means in relationship to the topic. Please explain.

Thank you.

[former9thward]

12. If they can hack into a major company

and cause tens of millions in damage they can hack into anything including things like the FAA.

Do you seriously think an attack on our economy is not a national security matter?

[uppityperson]

13. Thank you for explaining what you mean. Hackers do hack.

Ignoring your attempt to paint me in a negative manner.

[former9thward]

15. I did not mean to paint you negative.

And I apologize if I did. But at some point this issue will have to be seriously addressed. Our economy depends on secure computers.

[uppityperson]

16. I hate hackers and people who write viruses. I just didn't understand why Sony in particular

but if it is about the larger hacking issues, that is a serious issue.

[ozone_man]

21. What about stuxnet?

At least this hack didn't threatened a nuclear facility. I would love to see Wolf Blitzer talking about stuxnet in the same context as this. But you see how controlled by the media we are here, like lambs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuxnet

Israel

Israel, through Unit 8200,[106][107] has been speculated to be the country behind Stuxnet in many media reports[70][84][108] and by experts such as Richard A. Falkenrath, former Senior Director for Policy and Plans within the U.S. Office of Homeland Security.[109][71] Yossi Melman, who covers intelligence for the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz and is writing a book about Israeli intelligence, also suspected that Israel was involved, noting that Meir Dagan, the former (up until 2011) head of the national intelligence agency Mossad, had his term extended in 2009 because he was said to be involved in important projects. Additionally, Israel now expects that Iran will have a nuclear weapon in 2014 or 2015 – at least three years later than earlier estimates – without the need for an Israeli military attack on Iranian nuclear facilities; "They seem to know something, that they have more time than originally thought", he added.[23][44] Israel has not publicly commented on the Stuxnet attack but confirmed that cyberwarfare is now among the pillars of its defense doctrine, with a military intelligence unit set up to pursue both defensive and offensive options.[110][111][112] When questioned whether Israel was behind the virus in the fall of 2010, some Israeli officials[who?] broke into "wide smiles", fueling speculation that the government of Israel was involved with its genesis.[113] American presidential advisor Gary Samore also smiled when Stuxnet was mentioned,[44] although American officials have indicated that the virus originated abroad.[113] According to The Telegraph, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that a video celebrating operational successes of Gabi Ashkenazi, retiring IDF Chief of Staff, was shown at his retirement party and included references to Stuxnet, thus strengthening claims that Israel's security forces were responsible.[114]

In 2009, a year before Stuxnet was discovered, Scott Borg of the United States Cyber-Consequences Unit (US-CCU)[115] suggested that Israel might prefer to mount a cyber-attack rather than a military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.[92] And, in late 2010 Borg stated, "Israel certainly has the ability to create Stuxnet and there is little downside to such an attack, because it would be virtually impossible to prove who did it. So a tool like Stuxnet is Israel's obvious weapon of choice."[116] Iran uses P-1 centrifuges at Natanz, the design for which A. Q. Khan stole in 1976 and took to Pakistan. His black market nuclear-proliferation network sold P-1s to, among other customers, Iran. Experts believe that Israel also somehow acquired P-1s and tested Stuxnet on the centrifuges, installed at the Dimona facility that is part of its own nuclear program.[44] The equipment may be from the United States, which received P-1s from Libya's former nuclear program.[117][44]

Some have also referred to several clues in the code such as a concealed reference to the word "MYRTUS", believed to refer to the Myrtle tree, or Hadassah in Hebrew. Hadassah was the birth name of the former Jewish queen of Persia, Queen Esther.[118][119] However, it may be that the "MYRTUS" reference is simply a misinterpreted reference to SCADA components known as RTUs (Remote Terminal Units) and that this reference is actually "My RTUs"–a management feature of SCADA.[120] Also, the number 19790509 appears once in the code and might refer to the date "1979 May 09", the day Habib Elghanian, a Persian Jew, was executed in Tehran.[50][121][122] Another date that appears in the code is "24 September 2007", the day that Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke at Columbia University and made comments questioning the validity of the Holocaust.[33] Such data is not conclusive, since, as written by Symantec, "Attackers would have the natural desire to implicate another party" with a false flag.[33][50]

United States

There has also been testimony on the involvement of the United States and their collaboration with Israel,[123][124] with one report stating that "there is vanishingly little doubt that [it] played a role in creating the worm."[33] It has been reported that the United States, under one of its most secret programs, initiated by the Bush administration and accelerated[citation needed] by the Obama administration, has sought to destroy Iran's nuclear program by novel methods such as undermining Iranian computer systems. A diplomatic cable obtained by WikiLeaks showed how the United States was advised to target Iran's nuclear capabilities through 'covert sabotage'.[125] A New York Times article as early as January 2009 credited a then unspecified program with preventing an Israeli military attack on Iran.[126] A Wired article claimed that Stuxnet "is believed to have been created by the United States".[127] The fact that John Bumgarner, a former intelligence officer and member of the United States Cyber-Consequences Unit ([US-CCU), published an article prior to Stuxnet being discovered or deciphered, that outlined a strategic cyberstrike on centrifuges[128] and suggests that cyber attacks are permissible against nation states which are operating uranium enrichment programs that violate international treaties gives some credibility to these claims. Bumgarner pointed out that the centrifuges used to process fuel for nuclear weapons are a key target for cybertage operations and that they can be made to destroy themselves by manipulating their rotational speeds.[129]

In a March 2012 interview with CBS News' "60 Minutes", retired USAF general Michael Hayden – who served as director of both the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency – while denying knowledge of who created Stuxnet said that he believed it had been "a good idea" but that it carried a downside in that it had legitimized the use of sophisticated cyberweapons designed to cause physical damage. Hayden said, "There are those out there who can take a look at this… and maybe even attempt to turn it to their own purposes". In the same report, Sean McGurk, a former cybersecurity official at the Department of Homeland Security noted that the Stuxnet source code could now be downloaded online and modified to be directed at new target systems. Speaking of the Stuxnet creators, he said, "They opened the box. They demonstrated the capability… It's not something that can be put back."[130]
Joint effort and other states and targets

[nilesobek]

9. Having big dossiers on the ultra rich

and powerful, full of nasty dirt might be a "serious national security matter."

[elias49]

14. Since 9-11, we've been trained to be afraid.

But if it costs somebody a lot of money....different story.
Then it's a 'national security' issue.
Bull shit. And I don't believe it was N Korea.
Man! What a fuck up!

[seabeckind]

17. Lets see if I have this right...

Target gets hacked and a bunch of personal banking stuff is stolen.

Not a f'in peep out of anyone.

BOA gets hacked and a bunch of credit card stuff is stolen.

Not a f'in peep.

But some japanese company gets hacked by some other country and I'm supposed to get ready to go to war?

Is this some kind of fucking joke?

[elias49]

18. A real bad joke.

And nobody knows the punch line.

[malletgirl02]

20. It is because no one cares about the little people

The Traget and the BOA hacks only affected little people. People's email accounts get hacked everyday and no one cares, but once a corporation's bottom line gets affected lets bring on WWIII, yee haw! Cue Slim Pickens from the movie Doctor Strangelove riding that bomb to kingdom come.

[PSPS]

19. So this is what we've become -- a true corporatocracy

Homeless and mentally ill in the streets, practically third-world status on every social measure. But that's really not a problem, certainly not one of "national security" status.

But if a multinational conglomerate has a problem, whoa!
OMG! NATIONAL SECURITY! 9/11! RED ALERT!!11!1 The full force of the federal government comes into play now, for sure! We're now talking about something important -- corporate income! And rich people being embarrassed! Far more important than, you know, actual ordinary citizens.

I guess those big $$ bribes campaign contributions do pay dividends.

And it is really rather vulgar how the media focuses on the coddled rich actors' angst because, OMG! This will affect their obscene incomes! RED ALERT! SO SAD! POOR ROB LOWE! HOW CAN WE GO ON AFTER THIS TRAVESTY?

Utterly disgusting, but de rigueur these days.