Posted on 12/27/2014 3:45:25 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
Linguists identified foreign phrasing in about 2,000 words from hacker emails and posts that may have been penned by a Russian native speaker. Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Linguists identified foreign phrasing in about 2,000 words from hacker emails and posts that may have been penned by a Russian native speaker.
What if it wasn’t North Korea after all?
In the controversy over the Sony hacking, government officials have accused the sequestered communist country of hacking Sony, but security analysts argue Russian hackers may be the culprit.
Writing samples from hackers claiming responsibility for leaking finance reports and emails by Sony employees suggest the native language was Russian, according to Taia Global, a cyber security consulting group.
“Our preliminary results show that Sony's attackers were most likely Russian, possibly but not likely Korean and definitely not Mandarin Chinese or German,” the Seattle-based company wrote in a Christmas Eve blog post.
Linguists analyzed about 1,600 words in strangely worded emails and posts by the “Guardians of Peace,” but the findings are not enough to conclude North Korea spawned the cyber attacks that started Nov. 24. EUO 3TP TPSOUT KOROUT KCNA/REUTERS Writing samples from the 'Guardians of Peace' hackers suggest a Russian speaker may be behind it all, but a Korean speaker is possible, too.
The emails are surprisingly plentiful, Taia Global president Jeffrey Carr, said.
“Normally hackers don’t leave so many texts,” Carr told the Daily News in a brief phone call.
Phrases such as “our agents find themselves act in necessary places” and “is called by the greed of Sony” were compared to four major languages to detect the writer’s native language.
The majority of the phrasing could have been translated word for word from Russian, Shlomo Argamon, a professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology, learned. The Sony hack job led to a series of emails being leaked to the public starting Nov. 24 before threats of violence were made regarding the release of Sony's movie 'The Interview.' KEVORK DJANSEZIAN/REUTERS The Sony hack job led to a series of emails being leaked to the public starting Nov. 24 before threats of violence were made regarding the release of Sony's movie 'The Interview.'
“The author(s) were writing in English, knew English words, but were not proficient. They did not make their meaning clear,” Argamon told the Daily News.
Argamon is also a scientist at Taia Global, but has been researching text for the past eight years to detect the author’s native language and age.
His study concludes it's not impossible that the messages were written by a native Korean speaker, but it's unlikely.
Argamon’s study shows 15 out of 20 phrasings translated to English in the emails matched the Russian language. Nine matched Korean, but Mandarin and German is ruled out completely. DEC. 2 2014 FILE PHOTO Nick Ut/AP Despite the government’s announcement that North Korea is behind the Sony hacks, security analysts believe other forces such as Russian hackers may be at work.
The analysis is the same method used to show imprisoned UK killer Jamie Starbuck faked emails to his murdered wife’s family on her behalf for two years.
Though the findings do not completely rule North Korea out, it questions the US government's recent vow to avenge cyber attacks perpetrated within the country over Sony’s release of "The Interview".
Other theories detailed by the New York Times this week suggest any hacker could be responsible as long as they had an internet connection and basic hacking skills.
Malware programmed using a Korean language setting may have been a red herring as well.
Or simply, it was an inside job by a disgruntled Sony employee with sizeable knowledge on the company’s servers and passwords, the Times added.
It was the Norks!
It was the Russians!
It was “the Other”.
Works every time.
It wouldn’t surprise me it it were the Russians. And it wouldn’t surprise me if obola knew it and has been lying about it (surprise!). After all, he can play the tough guy against Un. Against Putin? Not so much.
what basis would Russia have to hack Sony?
Why don’t they just shut up until they can prove it? They said it was the Norks. So now maybe it wasn’t.
This is embarrassing.
We’ve always been at war with Eastasia.
The public wouldn't care if they shut down some pump station or even blew up a pipeline. But take away a movie and they screamed!
A DISGRUNTLED FIRED EX-Employee did it!! The FBI said it was the NK because SONY is a HUGE DEMOCRAT CONTRIBUTOR and they will get MILLIONS if it’s a “terrorist hack attack” Otherwise they get ZILCH!!!!!!
Oh PLEASE, it wasn’t ANY of these countries!!!!! geesh...think people!!
It was a US government attempt at a digital “Reichstag Fire”.
It was a publicity stunt gone bad.
Bampster: ‘I’ll have a lot more flexability after the election.’(Not good at spleng) Used to be, though.
Yes, that’s what I’ve been saying (current and/or former Sony IT employees responsible). It was an exploitation of weak IT security. If a rogue country was responsible, they’d be hitting the entire US with this, they wouldn’t be dinking around with idle threats (”Just wait until we hit next time!!!!”).
Everyone in Sony’s IT Security Department should be immediately sacked. This is bush league.
EXACTLY!! But Sony would LOSE MILLIONS if it WASN”T labeled by our CORRUPT govt. as the NK!!! This way SONY gets to collect MILLIONS in ILLICIT “terrorism insurance” funds!!
No surprises here. Ultimately the Norks are behind it, but I never thought it was a domestic Nork hacker team. My first guess was the Chinese and my second guess was the Russians. Both are known for massive hacker activity and they had the knowledge and ability to do it while I very much doubt any Nork team would.
The Norks just hired it out to the best hacker teams of which they knew.
Are ya kiddin? Money. The best reason.
Yes, I heard that an inside employee was involved, but this does not preclude this attack from being contracted out by North Korea. It may be just revenge, but I wouldn't be surprised if the disgruntled employee's hands were greased.
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