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U.S. claims DPRK "responsible for" Sony cyber attack

20 December 2014 00:54 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) claimed Friday that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) was "responsible for" the cyber attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE), APA reports quoting Xinhua.

The FBI said in a statement its investigation found what it called "enough information" to support the conclusion, including linking the so-called data deletion malware used in this attack to "other malware that the FBI knows North Korean actors previously developed."

"There were similarities in specific lines of code, encryption algorithms, data deletion methods, and compromised networks," it said.

The bureau also cited "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."

"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," it said.

The attack in late November has prompted the U.S.-based SPE to cancel the Christmas Day release of its comedy movie entitled " Interview," which depicts an assassination attempt on DPRK leader Kim Jong Un.

Early this month, a spokesman for the Policy Department of the National Defense Commission of the DPRK, said the allegation that Pyongyang was behind the attack was "a wild rumor."

The spokesman also said that the hacking might be "a righteous deed of the supporters and sympathizers with the DPRK," because the movie abets terrorism and hurts the dignity of the country's supreme leadership.