North Korea Claimed It Didn’t Hack Sony

The country has denied its involvement into the last week’s cyber-attack on Sony Pictures. The hack resulted in the leak of several unreleased movies and caused massive disruption to Sony’s email and other services of its internal computer network.

A diplomat from North Korea claimed that recent speculative reports, which linked North Korean hackers to the Sony breach, were just a “fabrication targeting the country”. North Korea publicly declared that it would follow international norms that ban hacking and piracy.

In the meantime, North Korea is known to have a sophisticated cyber-attack unit, and a few days ago a spokesman for its mission to the UN could not rule out the country’s involvement. Instead, he just told reporters to “wait and see” who was behind the attack.

The rumors were that North Korea, perhaps using hackers based in China, broke Sony Pictures’ computer network in order to retaliate for the release of The Interview movie, a comedy about a fictitious plot to assassinate the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un.

Moreover, the security experts have also been pointing to the fact that the Sony hack was similar to a cyber-attack believed to have been carried out by North Korea on South Korean banks and TV networks in 2013. Finally, when details of The Interview movie were released a few months ago, the country threatened a “merciless and resolute” response unless American authorities banned the film. North Korea’s ambassador to the UN in a letter to the UN secretary general called the movie “the most undisguised sponsoring of terrorism” and “an act of war”.

In result of the hack, at least 5 high-profile movies, such as Still Alice (a remake of the musical Annie), and To Write Love on Her Arms leaked to the file-sharing websites. Moreover, it turned out that the salaries and other confidential data of more than 6,000 Sony employees were also stolen during the hack.