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N. Korea threatens ultra-harsh action on U.S. soil over hacking allegation 2014/12/21 21:26 SEOUL, Dec. 21 (Yonhap) -- North Korea threatened to carry out ultra-harsh military action on U.S. soil Sunday, one day after U.S. President Barack Obama vowed a proportional response against the North's alleged hacking attack into Sony Pictures. In a follow-up to the FBI's recent hacking accusation against Pyongyang, Obama vowed Friday (U.S time) to "respond proportionally," hinting at retaliatory action over the communist country's alleged hacking attack on the distributor of a controversial movie about North Korea, "The Interview." North Korea had been suspected of involvement...

(Reuters) - North Korea said on Saturday U.S. accusations that it was involved in a cyberattack on Sony Pictures were "groundless slander," and that it wanted a joint investigation into the incident with the United States. An unnamed spokesman of North Korea's foreign ministry said there would be serious consequences if Washington refused to agree to the probe and continued to accuse Pyongyang, according to the North Korean U.N. mission and its official KCNA news agency. The United States stands by its assertion that North Korea was to blame, a White House National Security Council (NSC) spokesman said on Saturday,...

Posted: December 20, 2014 BitTorrent Offers To Distribute ‘The Interview’ Online For Sony The Interview may get shown after all. After Sony Pictures Entertainment announced that a threat from a shadowy hacking group would cause the movie to be shelved, the online site BitTorrent has stepped up and offered to release it online. Sony’s move to scrap the release of The Interview after the threat from hackers — believed to be from North Korea — was met with widespread criticism. Even President Obama said he disagreed with the decision. “Sony’s a corporation. It suffered significant damage, there were threats against...

David Martin December 19, 2014 How The Sony Hack Was Traced Back To North Korea The FBI statement was definitive: "The North Korean government is responsible" for the cyberattack on Sony. The attack was routed through servers in countries all over the world in an effort to hide its origin, but President Obama said North Korea is the sole culprit. "We've got no indication that North Korea was acting in conjunction with another country," Mr. Obama said Friday. The FBI cited some of its evidence tying the hack to North Korea: Internet addresses used by the North Korean government communicated...

Okay, not wearing a conspiracy hat here. But I’m simply not buying that the North Koreans were behind the hack of the decade. And no, I’m not blaming the U.S. Government, either (accept maybe for their own incompetence). Everything I’m seeing points to this hack as an ‘inside job’.

Blame Game: Sony Corp., having already taken a massive hit from North Korea's hack job, is now being attacked at home as a coward for canceling "The Interview." But what else was it supposed to do? [Snip] Hollywood is all too willing to cave under pressure from politically correct interest groups — without anyone ever raising an eyebrow. But before lumping Sony in with the rest of these cowardly acts, consider that DHS's reassurances apparently weren't enough to convince Sony executives there was no chance of an attack. What does that say about the administration's national security abilities?

British actor Idris Elba could be the first black James Bond, according to more leaked e-mails from Sony Pictures. “Idris should be the next Bond,” Sony Pictures chief Amy Pascal wrote nearly a year ago in an e-mail to Elizabeth Cantillon, a former executive vice president at Columbia Pictures. The leaked e-mail, reported by the Daily Beast, is from a trove of private e-mails, salary reports and bits of script and rough footage swiped and released by hackers believed to be from North Korea. Current Bond actor Daniel Craig is signed on to one more “James Bond” installment, “Spectre,” due...

...upcoming miniseries American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson.

Hunter Walker December 20, 2014A North Korean official said on Saturday that the secretive regime wants to mount a joint investigation with the United States to identify who was behind the cyber attack against Sony Pictures. An unnamed spokesman of the North Korean foreign ministry was quoted by the country's state news agency, KCNA, describing US claims they were behind the hack as "slander." "As the United States is spreading groundless allegations and slandering us, we propose a joint investigation with it into this incident," the official said, according to Agence France-Presse. After they began publishing leaked Sony movies, internal...

“German researchers have discovered security flaws that could let hackers, spies and criminals listen to private phone calls and intercept text messages on a potentially massive scale – even when cellular networks are using the most advanced encryption now available,” Craig Timberg reports for The Washington Post. “The flaws, to be reported at a hacker conference in Hamburg this month, are the latest evidence of widespread insecurity on SS7, the global network that allows the world’s cellular carriers to route calls, texts and other services to each other,” Timberg reports. “Experts say it’s increasingly clear that SS7, first designed in...

In the ebullience that surrounded the supposed end of the Cold War, few analysts worried about the nuggets of communist opposition that the tide of freedom had failed to sweep away. Cuba was harmless. China was capitalizing. Those weird little statelets left in the USSR’s wake? Whatever, bro. ........................................................ In fact, Hollywood has amassed so much undisclosed TMZ fodder that it’s willing to do whatever the North says. There is no margin for error, and no taking of chances. Spend enough time in the right/wrong circles here in L.A., and you’ll pick up a tabloid’s worth of sordid stories. Sometimes...

Earlier this week, Sony made the controversial call to cancel the release of its North Korea-set comedy The Interview over terroristic threats made by hackers. In a press conference today, President Obama called Sony's decision a "mistake." "Sony is a corporation," said President Obama. "It suffered significant damage. There were threats against its employees. I am sympathetic to the concerns that they faced. Having said all that, yes, I think they made a mistake." "We cannot have a society in which some dictator someplace can start imposing censorship here in the United States," he continued. "Because if somebody is able...

North Korea says it's not involved in Sony hack; proposes joint probe with US Published December 20, 2014 North Korea says it can prove it is not behind the massive Sony Pictures cyberattack that has led to several e-mail leaks, threats on movie theaters and the cancellation of the release of the movie “The Interview.” The country has also said it proposes a joint investigation with the U.S. on the attack and if the U.S. does not agree, North Korea warns of “grave consequences,” state media says. The announcement comes as a response to the FBI's statement saying it has...

Der Furher found out that Sony caved in to the Norks ... and was greatly disappointed

'Christmas dump' incoming with more 'interesting' Sony Pictures data Months before the hacker intrusion on Sony Pictures' network, analyst firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) performed an analysis on the company's security, and found it lacking. More than 100 devices were found to be unmonitored by corporate security following an incomplete transition from a private security firm to an in-house team. As a result, any Sony response to network intrusion would be, in the words of the auditors, "slow, fragmented, and incomplete, if it would even happen at all." However, corrective actions proposed by PWC seemingly went undone, which left the doors to...

Ladies and Gentlemen, as the new CEO of SONY Corporation, I am hereby announcing our strategy for the challenges presented by the North Korean hacking incident. I have: 1) Contacted via our representatives all our participating theaters, urging them to show "The Interview" at a special late night showing as the only film offered in that time slot. We don't want any innocent byestanders hurt and therefore all who attend will understand the risk they are taking. 2) Assembled our legal team to indemnify all said theater owners who screen the movie, both against physical/property loss and against lawsuits, should...

During his final 2014 press conference, President Barack Obama had some pretty stern words for Sony Pictures over their decision to pull The Interview in light of terror threats from North Korea-affiliated hackers. Amidst his remarks, though, came a notable flub that sent Twitter into a tizzy with joking responses. See transcript for the gaffe [emphasis added]: I think it says something interesting about North Korea that they decided to have the state come out with an all-out attack because of satirical movie starring Seth Rogen and James Flacco. I love Seth and I love James, but the notion that...

Did you know that having First Amendment rights in the United States comes with the responsibility not to offend dictators from North Korea? Had no idea? Me either. Last night on CNN "journalist" Sharon Waxman, who has worked at a number of media outlets including the Washington Post, argued that having First Amendment rights means we shouldn't be making fun of North Korean dictators because they might get upset. She was of course referring to the recent and massive hack on Sony pictures by North Korea as retaliation for "The Interview," a comedy about assassinating Kim Jong-Un. "I also want...

Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton appeared on CNN Friday afternoon to address the company's decision to pull "The Interview" from theaters.Lynton told CNN's Fareed Zakaria that Sony did not cave to the hacker group Guardians of Peace (GOP) by pulling the movie.A clip of the interview ran Friday afternoon on CNN. The full interview will air Friday night on Anderson Cooper 360.He said the decision to pull "The Interview" only came after the major theater chains decided not to show the film. It wasn't because Sony didn't want to distribute the movie."Movie theaters came to us … one by one...

  TRIGGER WARNING* This has to be the best real estate deal since Whitewater.  Through a complex series of events that even our 24-hour news junkies have trouble following, Al Sharpton will now get to produce rap music in Cuba, while the U.S. sets up its embassy on the current site of North Korea’s diplomatic mission in Havana.  And Kim Jong Un will get to share a Cohiba cigar with Dennis Rodman, Al Sharpton, Amy Pascal and President Obama. It’s all in this one infographic.   Sony Pictures greenlights a film titled The Interview, a comedy which depicts the assassination...