[LINK] "Ex-Worker Theory Casts Doubt on North Korea as Sony Hacker"
Bloomberg's Pavel Alpeyev reports. I would note that there's no reason state hackers and disgruntled employees can't collaborate.
At least one former employee of Sony Corp. may have helped hackers orchestrate the cyber-attack on the company’s film and TV unit, according to security researcher Norse Corp.
The company narrowed the list of suspects to a group of six people, including at least one Sony veteran with the necessary technical background to carry out the attack, said Kurt Stammberger, senior vice president at Norse. The company used Sony’s leaked human-resources documents and cross-referenced the data with communications on hacker chat rooms and its own network of Web sensors, he said.
Norse said the findings cast doubt on the U.S. government’s claim that the attack was aimed at stopping the release of “The Interview,” a comedy about a plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The FBI said Dec. 19 it had enough evidence to link the attack to the communist regime, prompting President Barack Obama to vow a response to the cyber-assault.
“There is no credible information to indicate that any other individual is responsible for this cyber incident,” Jenny Shearer, a Federal Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman, said today in an e-mail. The agency based its assessment on information from the U.S. intelligence community, the Department of Homeland Security, foreign partners and the private sector.
At least one former employee of Sony Corp. may have helped hackers orchestrate the cyber-attack on the company’s film and TV unit, according to security researcher Norse Corp.
The company narrowed the list of suspects to a group of six people, including at least one Sony veteran with the necessary technical background to carry out the attack, said Kurt Stammberger, senior vice president at Norse. The company used Sony’s leaked human-resources documents and cross-referenced the data with communications on hacker chat rooms and its own network of Web sensors, he said.
Norse said the findings cast doubt on the U.S. government’s claim that the attack was aimed at stopping the release of “The Interview,” a comedy about a plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The FBI said Dec. 19 it had enough evidence to link the attack to the communist regime, prompting President Barack Obama to vow a response to the cyber-assault.
“There is no credible information to indicate that any other individual is responsible for this cyber incident,” Jenny Shearer, a Federal Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman, said today in an e-mail. The agency based its assessment on information from the U.S. intelligence community, the Department of Homeland Security, foreign partners and the private sector.