Tag: DPRK

Podcast Episode 136: The Geopolitics of Cyber Attacks with LookingGlass and Bruce Schneier on Public Interest Cyber

How will the collapse of the North Korean summit affect that country’s malicious activity online? LookingGlass* joins us to discuss. Also: how to attract more technologists to public interest work. Note: this week’s podcast episode (#136) is sponsored by the firm LookingGlass Cyber Solutions. President Trump has been courting North Korea, while punishing Iran. In our second segment, we talk with Olga Polishchuk of the firm LookingGlass Cyber Solutions about how geopolitical tensions influence cyber activity online. But first: the information security industry is bigger and more diverse than ever. This week, it will converge on San Francisco for the 28th annual RSA Conference. The annual event, which started as a small, clubby gathering of cryptographers, now draws upwards of 40,000 people to downtown San Francisco. As always this year: there’s plenty of business to be done and deals to be struck at RSA on and off the show floor. […]

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Obama Signing

U.S. Sanctions 10 For Sony Hack, Keeps Mum on Evidence

  As the New York Times reports, the Obama administration doubled down on its recent allegation that the Democratic Peoples Republic of North Korea (DPRK) was behind the hacking of Sony Pictures, announcing sanctions on 10 senior North Korean officials and several organizations in response to the incident. Paradoxically, the administration acknowledged that there is no evidence that the 10 officials took part in either ordering or planning the Sony attack. Instead, they described them as “central to a number of provocative actions against the United States,” the Times reported. Those ‘provocative actions’ were not described. The actions mirror the Administration’s controversial decision, in May, to charge five Chinese military officers in May, 2014, for their connection to computer hacking and cyber espionage campaigns directed at U.S. firms in the nuclear power, metals and solar products industries. In the case of the Chinese nationals, however, the FBI cited evidence linking the five military officers to […]

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Two Step: FBI Says North Korea Acted Alone, Had Help

The official line on perhaps the biggest security story of the year shifted noticeably this week following a report by the security firm Norse Corp. that cast doubt on the official explanation of the devastating November hack: that it was a state-sponsored operation carried out by hackers working for the government of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, or DPRK. Two reports in recent days – both citing officials close to the Sony hack investigation – suggest that the FBI believes – simultaneously – that the DPRK did not act alone and that it was the only actor responsible for the attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment.

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The Moral of Sony? Stop Doing Attribution

The hack of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which first came to light on November 24th, devolved this week into a chaotic international “whodunnit” with conflicting reports attributing the incident to everything from the government of North Korea to the government of China to global hacktivist group Anonymous to disgruntled Sony employees. For sure: those attributing the attack to hacking crews within the military of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) had their argument bolstered by reports in the New York Times and elsewhere claiming that the U.S. government now believes that the DPRK, under the leadership of Kim Jong Un, was responsible for the devastating hack. Officials at Sony Pictures Entertainment clearly believe the connection is credible, ordering the cancellation of the release of the Sony Pictures film The Interview following threats of violence on theaters showing the film. That acceded to a key demand of the hackers, who have used the […]

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