The current media climate on Sony and North Korea reminds me of the alleged weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and the media’s buying into that fiction.
Consider the alleged “evidence” implicating North Korea:
- Technical analysis of the data deletion malware used in this attack revealed links to other malware that the FBI knows North Korean actors previously developed. For example, there were similarities in specific lines of code, encryption algorithms, data deletion methods, and compromised networks.
- The FBI also observed significant overlap between the infrastructure used in this attack and other malicious cyber activity the U.S. government has previously linked directly to North Korea. For example, the FBI discovered that several Internet protocol (IP) addresses associated with known North Korean infrastructure communicated with IP addresses that were hardcoded into the data deletion malware used in this attack.
- Separately, the tools used in the SPE attack have similarities to a cyber attack in March of last year against South Korean banks and media outlets, which was carried out by North Korea.
Update on Sony Investigation – FBI National Press Office – December 19, 2014
“Similarities” in malware are not surprising, given the open nature of the hacking community versus the cult of secrecy of the computer security community. There should be a lesson there for the computer security community.
Assuming there was use of IP addresses associated with data deletion malware, is hardly a smoking gun to prove North Korean involvement. Is that the only use for those IP addresses? And did this use correspond with the Sony attack?
Similarity is a term that covers a lot of ground. In what way were the tools similar? How similar were these tools to tools in other attacks?
Where are these questions being asked in the mainstream press?
No where that I can see.
The press buying into the weapons of mass destruction fraud resulted in the invasion/destruction of a sovereign country, destruction of a large part of its cultural heritage, untold hardship and bloodshed among its people and other harm. The press did not lead the troops but it certainly contributed to an atmosphere what made that invasion possible.
The public is poorly served by a press that uncritically accepts uncorroborated statements from government sources. That was the case on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Why the repetition of that behavior on North Korea’s involvement in the hacking of Sony?
Update:
Experts Skeptical North Korea Hacked Sony: A Chorus of Cyber Experts Question the FBI’s Evidence by Ainsley O’Connell.
I’m glad to see the questioning reaction growing, but why didn’t the media report the story as uncorroborated if they didn’t want to cry “BS?” How hard is that?
Example: “The FBI made uncorroborated claims today that North Korea was responsible for the hacking of Sony. The FBI declined to release any of its alleged evidence implicating North Korea for analysis by independent experts.”
How hard is that?
Evidence first, conclusion later (maybe).