As many of you most likely know, on
November 24th 2014, Sony Pictures Entertainment underwent one of the
worst cyber-attacks in corporate history resulting in the loss and/or exposure
of employee’s personal data, emails, movie screenplays, etc. It is believed that these attacks came from
North Korea in response to the planned theatrical release of ‘The Interview,’ a
comedy starring two American journalists who are instructed to assassinate North
Korean leader Kim Jong-un after booking an interview with him. In what is
considered the first aspect of the U.S.’s response to these attacks, on January
2nd, President Obama signed an executive order imposing increased
sanctions on North Korea which is the first time the U.S. has ever explicitly
charged another government with mounting a cyberattack on American targets.
Leaving out the obvious political tensions
that exist between North Korea and the U.S., this case revolves around several
topics that are relevant to our class including: the ‘reach’ of the N.S.A.,
cyber-terrorism and fear of the freedom of speech. To begin with the New York
Times articles linked below mention that for about a decade the U.S. has implanted
beacons which can map computer networks along with surveillance software in the
computer systems of foreign adversaries. With it, the N.S.A. was able to
conclude that the hackers spent more than two months mapping Sony’s computer
systems, identifying critical files and planning how to destroy computers and
servers. This technology was crucial as it was also used during Obama’s first
few months in office to attack the computer systems running Iran’s nuclear enrichment
facilities back in 2012. With that being said, it is quite alarming to see how these
complex infrastructures, whether foreign or domestic, are open to invasion
and exposure by either the N.S.A. or some outside source.
In terms of North Korea’s cyber capabilities,
Jang Sae-yul, a former North Korean army programmer who defected in 2007 stated:
“They have built up formidable hacking skills.
They have spent almost 30 years getting ready, learning how to do this and this
alone, how to target specific countries.” Cyber-warfare is the modern chapter
in North Korea’s long history of asymmetrical warfare as said by a security research
report by Hewlett-Packard. It will be interesting to see how exactly the U.S.
plans to further deal with the situation with either placing more sanctions or
engaging in our own cyber-retaliation. As
we continue to push through the 21st century depending on technology
for just about everything, it is reasonable to assume that cyber-attacks will
have more devastating effects in the future. So hopefully companies like Sony
will be able to have stronger firewalls in order to prevent such events from occurring
again.
The final point that
I wanted to draw attention to from this story revolves around freedom of speech,
or rather fear of it. After North Korea hacked Sony, they continuously
sent warnings to their executives telling them to scrap the movie or else there
would be severe repercussions as they referenced the attacks of 9/11 in their
threats. Because of this, Sony succumbed to the pressure and canceled the
theatrical release of the film which led many fans, critics, and President Obama
himself to state that Sony had made a mistake. Though Sony eventually gave the
film a limited release, I believe the damage of their actions is already done.
For years North Korea
has made a point to show off its military might by holding massive rallies that
feature “columns of rocket tubes, goose-stepping paratroopers and
intercontinental ballistic missiles, or at least mock-ups of the weapons.” They’ve
made it clear that they loathe America and continue to threaten our ways of
life. But it wasn’t the fear of military might that made Sony cancel the
release of the film. It was the fear that was instilled in them due to the
cyber-attacks. Yes, the threat of attacking theaters that would show the film
is a serious situation that needed addressing but I personally don’t think that
Sony would have succumbed if it weren’t for the cyber-attacks. I believe this
goes to show just how badly cyberterrorism could affect our freedoms. In the
worst case scenario, I think this fear of the unknown might cause us to give up
our basic rights in the future as it is easy to assess your enemy when they are
a physical force (troops, planes, tanks, etc.), but when it is a cyber-attack and
you don’t know who is responsible for it (as is this case, though we’re
assuming it’s North Korea), it’s a whole other story.
References:
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