North Korea responds to the Sony Hack

[Ichingcarpenter]

"We have a way to prove that we have nothing to do with the case without resorting to torture, as what the CIA does."

North Korea proposes 'joint investigation' into Sony hacking scandal - but warns there will be 'serious consequences' if US refuses

North Korea has offered to hold a joint inquiry with the United States into the Sony hacking scandal, but warned there will be “serious consequences” should the proposal be rejected.

Repeated cyber-attacks have caused Sony Entertainment Pictures to cancel the release of satirical film The Interview. The plot follows James Franco and Seth Rogen attempts to assassinate North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un.

On Friday, the FBI claimed that North Korean government was behind the leaks of embarrassing private emails and confidential information of directors, producers and stars.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/north-korea-proposes-joint-investigation-into-sony-hacking-scandal--but-warns-there-will-be-serious-consequences-if-us-refuses-9937594.html

[Fred Sanders]

1. Or the CIA spying on the Senate...or on Germany...or on us.

[GummyBearz]

2. Yea,

I'm very scared of these "serious consequences"... lol

Maybe North Korea didn't do it themselves, and instead they just asked/paid China (or another friend) to do it. It doesn't matter. Just ask yourself who would want this movie hidden away so bad that they would launch a massive cyber attack, black mail the sony executives, and their only demand was "don't show the movie". No ransom, or anything else.

One obvious suspect comes to mind, and its not an "apolitical hacker group known as the 'Guardians of Peace'". Nearly all organized hacker groups out there are dedicated to freedom of speech in one way or another. So that just doesn't fit their MO. Now, again, who benefited (at least in their delusional world)?

I'm sure the guilty party would love to be involved in a "joint investigation", so that they can influence it as much as possible, relay evidence back so alibis can be developed ahead of time, etc.

[2naSalit]

8. Tha's

what I am leaning toward. I don't think it was governmentally oriented but I do suspect that someone who is adept in illusion creation would be willing to use it off-screen to cover up something incriminating.

I smell fish.

[daredtowork]

4. Serious Consequences? I want some of what North Korea is smoking. nt

[Ichingcarpenter]

6. I thought the responce was amusing

and typical dumb shit N Korea says

but it did take the eye off of the torture report.

The Sony Hack has revealed a few things going unreported.


Leaked emails from the hack against Sony show that major movie companies are working together with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) on a project aimed to stop a company known as "Goliath."

It's pretty clear they're referring to Google.

The Verge first reported on an email from one of the MPAA's top lawyers, Steven Fabrizio, laying out Hollywood's strategy against Goliath.

From Hollywood's perspective, Goliath is enabling piracy online. Hollywood's goal appears to be blocking access to pirated movies.

"We start from the premise that site blocking is a means to an end," said Fabrizio.

But what stands out from the leaked emails is that the major studios, who normally compete against each other, are banding together with the MPAA to defeat an enemy they can't even bring themselves to name.

It's like when Harry Potter characters call Voldemort "he who must not be named."



Read more: http://uk.businessinsider.com/project-goliath-emails-show-how-scared-hollywood-is-of-google-2014-12?r=US#ixzz3MSj0ueWD


Security blogger Marc W. Rogers documents a number of other indications that North Korea was not involved.

“The fact that the code was written on a PC with Korean locale & language actually makes it less likely to be North Korea,” Rogers explains. “Not least because they don’t speak traditional ‘Korean’ in North Korea, they speak their own dialect and traditional Korean is forbidden. This is one of the key things that has made communication with North Korean refugees difficult.”

Additionally, the broken English used “looks deliberately bad and doesn’t exhibit any of the classic comprehension mistakes you actually expect to see in ‘Konglish’. i.e it reads to me like an English speaker pretending to be bad at writing English.”

Rogers also explains how the hacker’s familiarity with the infrastructure clearly points to an insider being responsible.

“It’s clear from the hard-coded paths and passwords in the malware that whoever wrote it had extensive knowledge of Sony’s internal architecture and access to key passwords,” Rogers notes. “While it’s plausible that an attacker could have built up this knowledge over time and then used it to make the malware, Occam’s razor suggests the simpler explanation of an insider.”

Indeed, Sony executives themselves are convinced that the hack was an inside job. “We’re told the people at Sony who are investigating believe the hackers had intimate knowledge of mail systems and their configurations,” reports TMZ. “They also believe the hackers have knowledge of the internal media distribution systems and the internal IT systems, including human resources and payroll.”


http://marcrogers.org/2014/12/18/why-the-sony-hack-is-unlikely-to-be-the-work-of-north-korea/


http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/north-korea-didnt-hack-sony-pictures-who-hell-did-1480082

[daredtowork]

7. So Sony pulled the movie

because they are complying with demands in hopes that the details of their vast conspiracy against Google won't come out?



*eats popcorn*

[Ichingcarpenter]

12. No.....it was revealed but not emphasized.

The Movie is just a sideshow and a distraction to look at , a misdirection.


The Goliath memo is important.


A series of emails by one of the MPAA’s (the Motion Picture Association of America) top lawyers, Steven Fabrizio, and six major Hollywood studios - Universal, Sony, Fox, Paramount, Warner Bros., and Disney – indicate they have teamed up against “Goliath”, their adversary in the online piracy battle.

The plan, started in January, involved major studios donating money to a special $500,000 annual legal support fund. The executives debated legal and technically advanced tools to block pirated content.

Top Hollywood bosses talk about “the problems created by Goliath” and the need to "respond to/rebut Goliath’s public advocacy" and "amplify negative Goliath news."

This comes despite Google adopting new anti-piracy measures, with the latest taken in October.

It should be noted that the word ‘Google’ is rarely mentioned in the letters. However, one of the emails comes with a telling attachment titled "Search Engine Piracy Discussion (MPAA Discussion)." Several emails also contain references to copyright infringement found with Google, the Verge reports.

Along with major financial contributions, Hollywood bosses were attempting to involve attorney generals in the idea: at least one, Jim Hood, was apparently linked to the project.

There is an investigative side to the battle with “Goliath”: among the emails, there is a proposed project called Keystone, with a $70,000 budget aimed at gathering enough evidence against “Goliath” to launch legal action against the corporation.

Plus, Comcast, the owner of NBC Universal, reportedly employed specialists to detect pirated traffic in transit and ways to block the content.

Hollywood executives were in for a long fight, the emails suggested. "To take this through and have a reasonable chance of success, we probably would need to continue through year two," one of the letters reads.

After the failure of SOPA in 2012, it appeared the studios feared the public’s reaction to the site-blocking tactics.

"In the post-SOPA world, we need to consider the extent to which a strategy presents a risk of a public-relations backlash," Fabrizio wrote in one of the emails.

Neither MPAA nor Sony officials have answered requests for comments so far, according to the Verge.


This is where I would Look on who hacked it


Sony Pictures lays off employees in' technology' group, including leader

2014 jan



Sony Pictures Entertainment has laid off an undisclosed number of people from its Sony Pictures Technologies group, including the unit's president, Chris Cookson.

The studio confirmed the layoffs, which occurred Wednesday, saying in a statement that the functions of Sony Pictures Technologies would be absorbed "into various core businesses."

A spokesman for the Sony Corp.-owned studio declined to say how many people were losing their jobs. The Technologies division handles the studio's technology policy and processes as they relate to creating content.


Sony Pictures is in the midst of an effort to reduce its overheard by $250 million. The studio, run by Chairman Michael Lynton and Co-Chairman Amy Pascal, has also hired consultancy Bain & Co. to examine the studio's expenditures, with the goal of at least $100 million more in cuts.


In recent months, studio executives including Marc Weinstock, the former head of domestic and international marketing, and Steve Elzer, the former senior vice president of media relations, have been let go.

Also laid off Wednesday was Mitch Singer, Sony Pictures' chief digital strategy officer, who spearheaded the studio's UltraViolet initiative, which gives consumers access to movies they've purchased across different devices.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-sony-pictures-lays-off-employees-technology-group-20140122-story.html

In 2012 Sony laid off 10,000 people.

[daredtowork]

15. Maybe Google did it. ;) nt

[bbgrunt]

22. there certainly are a lot of putrid smells emanating from this.

[helpmetohelpyou]

5. Maybe it was a false flag so our government

can institute the most intrusive laws ever discussed behind closed doors.

[2naSalit]

11. I didn't want to

say that but it's a thought which has occurred to me these past few days - more than once.

[helpmetohelpyou]

13. I posted it half in jest but with the NSA who the hell knows anymore

[2naSalit]

14. Recall

what Naomi Klein has told us, among others... that's what keeps coming to the surface when these events are revealed. I have very little sense of trust in most of what I read and hear anymore.

[True Blue Door]

9. My reaction to anything ever said by North Korea: LOL!

Anyway, that image is just plain wrong. The torture report inspired a hell of a lot more outrage.

[Katashi_itto]

10. What does the torture poster have to do with N.K.?

[Nuclear Unicorn]

18. It's been said here at DU that the because of the torture report the US lacks the moral high ground

to complain about NK's threats of violence.

[Ichingcarpenter]

19. Link please

Or are you just making shit up?

NK is a totalitarian dystopia

[Nuclear Unicorn]

20. sheesh

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025984600#post2

[Katashi_itto]

24. Thanks, was wondering what the heck the poster was for

[90-percent]

16. Good points

This whole scenario could just be a fabrication to sell American's everything in the heinous TPP? Because part of the thrust of the TPP is to obliterate any form of internet piracy, regardless of the harm it would do to the vast majority of us that don't do internet piracy.

I'm not explaining myself well, but the thrust of the TPP as I understand it is to take the powers usually reserved for soverien nations, and instead giving that power to corporations?

Watching this unfold over the last week is remarkable and the amount of misinformation about the entire affair is also remarkable. The PTB's are really pulling a lot of strings to try to steer this mess to their favor.

Rachel's comparison to the Salman Rushdie Fatwah of the early 90's is a good predictor of how this trajectory will turn out. Public demand will eventually get this movie out to the public in some form, as it did with Rushdie. I think most American's are starting to really go WTF with North Korea dictating what we are forbidden to see.

-90% Jimmy

[Ichingcarpenter]

17. Both the NSA and the CIA could find out who hacked this

But then the NSA would lie about it again and again and the CIA would torture the wrong person to get a false confession.

but jokes aside ...... I don't trust corporations long term goals for the almighty dollar.. nor our Secret governmental agencies.

who knows? The Korean angle to me doesn't add up except to rattle their cage.

[NuclearDem]

21. Yes, it was obviously a false flag

designed to get people on board with something that few outside of the most liberal circles have heard of, much less care about.

[DeSwiss]

23. This. Is. Total. Bullshit.

As DeepThroat said long ago: Always follow the money.

- Sheeple are so easy to herd because they never question where the commands are coming from. They've been trained to just respond......


Why would a Russian Oligarch who owns a British newspaper want to foment more anger and distrust in the world right now, than there already is. How is that good for business?

K&R