Despite denials that North Korea was behind the recent crippling cyber attacks on Sony Pictures Entertainment, the communist nation remains the prime suspect in the incident, according to a source in U.S. national security.
The investigation of the government on the attack that occurred on Nov. 24 is led by the Los Angeles Field Office of the FBI, with Sony Pictures fully cooperating.
The source, a national security official, revealed to Reuters that there are other suspects aside from North Korea, but it is still too early in the investigations to confirm the attacker.
The cyber attacks on Sony Pictures extracted and exposed a significant portion of the company's internal data, such as the Social Security Numbers and salaries of the employees. In addition, the security breach also forced Sony Pictures to close down their computer systems, keeping employees logged out of their computers as investigations began.
North Korea was tied to the attack due to the country's publicized denouncement of The Interview, a comedy by Sony Pictures about an assassination plan for Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea. The movie stars James Franco and Seth Rogen, who play journalists that have been granted an interview with the North Korean leader. The CIA then recruits the pair to kill Kim Jong Un.
Back in June, North Korean capital Pyongyang denounced the movie as the "undisguised sponsoring of terrorism, as well as an act of war," contained within a letter sent to the secretary of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon.
However, a North Korean diplomat based in New York told Voice of America that connecting North Korea to the cyber attacks on Sony Pictures was none other than "another fabrication targeting the country."
"My country publicly declared that it would follow international norms banning hacking and piracy," said the diplomat.
However, investigations by cyber security experts reveal that certain pieces of the malware used on Sony Pictures included codes that were written in the Korean language. Additionally, there are several similarities between the cyber attacks on Sony Pictures and those carried out against South Korean banks and broadcasting companies last year, which were widely believed to have come from North Korea.
Evidence points to the fact that the hackers who sabotaged the computer systems of Sony Pictures came from North Korea. If proven true, there is no clear connection yet between the hackers and the North Korean government.
The hackers who attacked Sony Pictures identified themselves as the Guardians of Peace, and have leaked IT data such as personal login credentials for Sony Pictures employees.
