Sony Hackers Threaten Terrorist Attacks on American Soil

[jordan179]

Hackers, very obviously agents of the North Korean government, have for a while now been trying to shut down a movie, The Interview, because it depicts an assassination attempt upon the Sacred Personage of the North Korean leader, mad tyrant Kim Jong Un.  Previous attacks on Sony included interference with commerce and other cyber-crimes committed

Comments

[xiphias]

Before you get too worked up, do a quick google search on the timeline of North Korean threats. Their rate of threat-making is pretty much independent of whomever is in the White House, what the US is or is not doing, what anybody ELSE is or is not doing, whether they have had any sort of provocation, whether they have any capacity for carrying out their threats ...

Whether Obama is weak or not makes no difference. NK just does random things for no discernable reason. If NK threatens war, it's not a sign of Obama's weakness. If NK suddenly decided to capitulate and surrender to South Korea, it wouldn't be a sign of Obama's strength. Their actions are completely independent of any outside stimulus.

[superversive]

Their actions may be independent of outside stimulus. The U.S.’s reaction is not.

[jordan179]

The problem is that this threat is designed to impose internal censorship upon us, has already been backed up with action, and requires the acquisition of no technically-difficult capability by the Norks. Our own internal freedom of speech is being threatened here.

[xiphias]

The appropriate action for the United States to take here is to roll our eyes and ignore it. Anything else is giving too much credit to the NK.

[jordan179]

And what happens when US media in the future feel intimidated and back off on criticizing North Korea? For that matter, what justice does Sony get for the damage done it by the hackers? And what happens if real terrorist attacks materialize?

If we "roll our eyes and ignore" such attacks, we abdicate our duty to protect our own countrymen.