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Comment by joelrunyon | Hacker News Reader

A few questions:

1. Does NK even have the capability to pull something like this off? They seemingly fail at every other intimidation stunt they pull off & now they have a massive success out of nowhere? Hm...

2. Why would they deny it if they did it? It's very out of character for them to not pounce on the chance of something being very embarrassing to the US.

3. With all the talk of it being so complicated to pinpoint exactly where the attacks came from, what info is the US gov using to pin this on NK (besides the very easy narrative around the context of the movie). They have to have a bit more intel than they're letting on...or something is fishy here.

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Of course they have the capability. The North Korean government has billions of dollars to throw at any project they come up with. The breakin at Sony, sourced commercially in the US, might have cost mid-six-figures.

The don't have billions to spend on a whim - that's America you're thinking of.

Sure they do. Look at what they spend on their military, which in reality does them no good whatsoever (their true defenses are diplomacy with China and their hostage to the south).

True, though you could argue that feeding their military is a social welfare program of sorts, though it also redirects resources from the general public.

You are asking if a country that has the capability of producing nuclear weapons (albeit a small, simple stockpile) has the capability to hack an insecure company.

RE (1.): To imply that North Korea does not have the capability of pulling this off is to imply that the country is bereft of single human being with access to an Internet-connected computer.

With that said--whether or not they were involved is entirely up for debate.

> is to imply that the country is bereft of single human being with access to an Internet-connected computer.

Having access to the internet doesn't mean you can automatically hack a multi-billion dollar company.

Sony is the epitome of why we should not equate money with technological security. Additionally, the methods used to gain access to their systems necessitated little if any capital expenditure on the part of the attackers. Granted, that is not to say that no capital was expended, but simply that little expenditure was necessitated by the alleged methods.

About 1. it was the subject of the following Phrack's publication: http://phrack.org/issues/68/19.html#article

NK does have the ability.

Few things to remember: 1. The instruments of dictatorship is working well. They are not bunch of idiots. They outlasted the Soviets! 2. NK launched a medium range ballistic missile. It was a rather crud one (basically bolted together from parts from multiple missiles). NK may be poor and a backward country but they did build and launch the rocket(although it broke up in mid flight). How many nations have actually launched rockets as NK did? 3. We all know 'hacking' isn't some rocket science. It can be done by any reasonably intelligent person with a lot of time on their hands. And NK obviously has reasonably intelligent people who have the aptitude for programming/coding/hacking with a lot of time on their hands.

NK's only internet connection is via link through China. But I can also see NK posting hacker-soldiers in China too.

A few quick answers:

1) Yes, probably. They have some sort of a cyber military organization, and it wouldn't even have to be _that_ sophisticated to pull this off. In brief see http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/11...

2) They're afraid of the repercussions given the massive public reaction to the hack. This isn't a fully persuasive line of reasoning, but it seems like a possibility.

3) You can see some of the evidence explained here: http://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/update-on-so...

>They're afraid of the repercussions

There would be no repercussions for NK admitting that they did it.

Adding to this, I really hope this isn't the digital version of WMDs-in-Iran-type-event where we make up convenient excuses to intervene in countries that are somewhat problematic.

The USA won't intervene in a country with nuclear weapons and a few kilometers from Seoul for crime without physical damages. NK won't hacknowledge it because they want to appear as a victim in every way possible.

This isn't a good enough excuse to intervene.

North Korea routinely provides much better reasons to intervene.

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