North Korea Too Underpowered and Inept to Launch Sophisticated Cyber Attack

“A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” Mark Twain

www.infowars.com...

Indeed this may be another LIE going out to the public pabulum eaters who are and were ready to hurl nuclear bombs at North Korea not to mention the self-righteous hypocrisy of Americans so ready to condemn NK( even if they did do this attack) for recoiling against a movie that parodies the torture murder of their leader.

So it seems the lie has traveled more than half way around the world while the truth is still trying to buy some shoes to put on since apparently according to some cyber experts NK is too primitive technologically to have done this deed.

The FBI’s conclusion is questioned by security and computer networking experts. They say North Korea does not have the ability to launch this sort of attack. David Kennedy, founder of the security consulting firm TrustedSec LLC, said North Korea “is still very shut off and secretive, so it struggles with getting the technology it needs to launch major cyberattacks.” On Saturday, an FBI-connected cyber security expert tweeted out his opinion that North Korea is simply not capable of the Sony attack.

“Christopher M Davis @DavisSec Follow As a guy that works with the FBI on cyber crime fairly often, I still can't help but feel like they got this wrong. NK lacks this ability. 12:28 PM - 19 Dec 2014 “

Others argue that the sheer weight of the data stolen would have crippled North Korea’s fledgling ISP. “Look at the bandwidth going into North Korea. I mean, the pipelines, the pipes going in, handling data, they only have one major ISP across their entire nation. That kind of information flowing at one time would have shut down North Korean Internet completely,” Hector Monsegur told CBS. (Monsegur, aka Sabu, is the supposed Anonymous hacker who served as a stool pigeon for the government.) “For something like this to happen, it had to happen over a long period of time. You cannot just exfiltrate one terabyte or 100 terabytes of data in a matter of weeks,” Monsegur said. “It’s not possible. It would have taken months, maybe even years, to exfiltrate something like 100 terabytes of data without anyone noticing.”

There is only one “omnivore of staggering capabilities” able to suck up this much data in short order — the National Security Agency. According to NSA whistleblower William Binney, the agency’s computers in Utah can suck up 20 terabytes – the equivalent of the Library of Congress – per minute.

In addition to a lack of technology, North Korea is not especially adept when it comes to cyber attacks. In March, 2013 SophosLabs identified malware used in an internet attack that disrupted banking and television network systems in South Korea. Dubbed DarkSeoul, the malware was “not particularly sophisticated,” according to Graham Cluley, writing for Sophos’ Naked Security.

LINK

China to be Blamed for Sony Hack

Following the FBI allegation, Obama promised “proportional” retaliation “at a time and place” of U.S. government choosing. That retaliation, although unspecified, may include action against China, the real object of concern for the elite. North Korea poses absolutely no threat while China is a primary geostrategic obstacle. Obama left unstated for now the connection between North Korea and China.

This whole incident always smelled bad to me.

Thinking about movies wasn't it a movie out a few years ago with Dustin Hoffman about some Hollywood directer hired by some government agency to start a war

NOW I REMEMBER Wag the Dog

Shortly before an election, a spin-doctor and a Hollywood producer join efforts to fabricate a war in order to cover up a presidential sex scandal.

Sony may be the Dog in this Fight

I'm fairly certain that the leadership of North Korea has enough money to pay for the right people/equipment for a hack like this.

Saying "they lack the ability to do this" is a pretty moronic excuse for a conspiracy theory.

a reply to: Answer

You’d be surprised at the ineptness of governments in cyber technology

Including a country called America that let some college drop out computer technician take data to Russia.

I think Russia is behind the whole thing.

Beyond the technical stuff, there's also what the actual attackers said to take into consideration. I posted in more detail in another thread, but here's a summary:

1. Some 3 days before the hack, there was an email threatening Sony and wanting "monetary compensation" - yet, no movie was mentioned.
   
2. On the day of the hack, the attackers began to make good on their threats.
   
3. Sony and various media outlets were quick to say it was because of The Interview, giving a clear motive for North Korea.
   
4. Alleged response from hackers deny this: "We are not under direction of any state. Our aim is not at the film The Interview as Sony Pictures suggests." The message also said: "This shows how dangerous film The Interview is."
   
5. Sony next claims that there were threats to employees.
   
6. Alleged response from hackers deny they sent threats to employees. It also says this: "Do carry out our demand if you want to escape us. And, Stop immediately showing the movie of terrorism which can break regional peace and cause the War!"

"And, Stop" ? Seems as if the movie was more of an afterthought.

I thought it was an attack outside of NK/some other group/organization, but lead by NK...

a reply to: Willtell

To dismiss North Korea in this area is dangerous. N. Korea does have military units tasked for cyber operations and has had them for some time now.

The Evidence That North Korea Hacked Sony Is Flimsy

First off, we have to say that attribution in breaches is difficult. Assertions about who is behind any attack should be treated with a hefty dose of skepticism. Skilled hackers use proxy machines and false IP addresses to cover their tracks or plant false clues inside their malware to throw investigators off their trail. When hackers are identified and apprehended, it’s generally because they’ve made mistakes or because a cohort got arrested and turned informant.

a reply to: Willtell

I am willing to go out there and say this was not a sophisticated attack, what they said on CNN was that an administrators credentials were acquired, they also mention that while traveling there are many chances for some of these individuals to be careless or become compromised, the most basic thing that you learn in any security or IT related occupation is social engineering, there is a possibility to over think the sophistication, when merely there may have been some careless and unknowing surrender of access credentials or either some unpatched vulnerability that was exploited by any freely or monetarily available hack available for 15.00 on the internet.

That's not so sophisticated, but that's my take on it.

originally posted by: Xcathdra
a reply to: Willtell

To dismiss North Korea in this area is dangerous. N. Korea does have military units tasked for cyber operations and has had them for some time now.

Dangerous to who?

But in their initial public statement, whoever hacked Sony made no mention of North Korea or the film. And in an email sent to Sony by the hackers, found in documents they leaked, there is also no mention of North Korea or the film. The email was sent to Sony executives on Nov. 21, a few days before the hack went public. Addressed to Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton, Chairwoman Amy Pascal and other executives, it appears to be an attempt at extortion, not an expression of political outrage or a threat of war.

www.wired.com...

North Korea Hacked Sony? Don't Believe It, Experts Say

UPDATE 2:45 pm ET Friday: "The FBI announced today, and we can confirm, that North Korea engaged in this attack" against Sony Pictures Entertainment, President Barack Obama said Friday (Dec. 19) in a televised national address. However, the evidence the FBI cited in its press statement — that some of the malware, and some of the network infrastructure, used to hit Sony Pictures resembled those used in previous suspected North Korean attacks — was not enough to convince skeptical experts. "All of the evidence [the] FBI cites would be trivial things to do if a hacker was trying to misdirect attention to DPRK," tweeted Brett Thomas, chief technology officer of Redwood City, California-based online-services company Vindicia, referring to North Korea by the acronym of its formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "The U.S. security-intelligence complex is running amok once again," Sean Sullivan, a security adviser at Finnish antivirus firm F-Secure, tweeted. "Washington, D.C., is incapable of saying 'we don't know.'"

The FBI is not reliable as a source for anything related to the truth

a reply to: Willtell

The person who writes off N. Korea and assumes they are not able to do something like this. There is nothing wrong with the position that N. Korea may not be able to do this. The issues start when the position is they never could do something like this.

They have a military 1st doctrine and have complete control over phones and their internet. They are supported by Russia and China, who are capable of doing this.

Based on current relations between the US and China/Russia/N. Korea who is to say N. Korea didn't get help?

a reply to: Xcathdra

I'm not a dogmatic person. I quote some experts in the field and have no WAG THE DOG in this fight.

(But I do know a can when I hear one, imo)

I don't dismiss out of hand the possibility that NK could or did do this but according to many experts the evidence is flimsy...

originally posted by: Willtell
a reply to: Answer

You’d be surprised at the ineptness of governments in cyber technology

Including a country called America that let some college drop out computer technician take data to Russia.

Kinda like those college drop out computer technicians who started Microsoft, Apple, Dell, and Facebook?

Yeah, what an inept bunch they are...

a reply to: Answer

Yeah their very inept since their the ones who can’t make any decent software( code) that can stop hackers let alone make a browser that can browse more than an hour without crashing.

Of course if you judge then by their bank accounts they are successful but judging by their customer base how could they not be successful.

a reply to: Willtell

I'm totally with you on this one Will. Something is amiss here and I don't think NK is behind this either.

The most telling reasons are the huge amount of data that was pulled with their less than capable technical ability to do that (unless they had inside help) and the fact that nobody is playing this in the way that makes any sense.

The NK angle was never there until we gave it to them through the media either.

There is definitely something else going on here besides State Sponsored Cyber Terrorism.

originally posted by: mOjOm
a reply to: Willtell

I'm totally with you on this one Will. Something is amiss here and I don't think NK is behind this either.

The most telling reasons are the huge amount of data that was pulled with their less than capable technical ability to do that (unless they had inside help) and the fact that nobody is playing this in the way that makes any sense.

The NK angle was never there until we gave it to them through the media either.

There is definitely something else going on here besides State Sponsored Cyber Terrorism.

Right Mo

Those are the apparent facts that people should look at such are the capabilities of NK…
Likely we’ll never know for sure.
Indeed we’ll know for sure when we know who really did the sarin gas attack in Syria or what happened to those Malaysian planes or who did 911, etc…
Indeed the generation of mysteries!
Ha…ha…ha

I think we don’t need politicians anymore we need a Sherlock Holmes

a reply to: phinubian

i saw a interview with the CEO on fox when he came out and said they didn't fold, saying that when the FBI, and outside Security experts looked at the malware, both said that it was so sophisticated that 90% of all the anti malware and antivirus would have been defeated.

wonder who telling the truth.

a reply to: Willtell

To me it could very likely be a personal revenge thing by a group of ex employees who got lucky when the media started in with the NK angle and just went with it. We would still be talking about some knowledgeable hackers with the intelligence to pull it off and hide their tracks but I would imagine that those are the types of people Sony would employ anyway. They aren't going to hire a bunch of slackers or idiots for the most part.

I wouldn't put it past our very own nsa either along with some other Corporate Giant using this as another reason to go to war with one of our enemies abroad. They would have the resources to do it and in the Corporate world there are no rules.

NK just doesn't seem right. For one thing, if they did it I would think they would be promoting the hell out of it rather than denying it. Now that they want an Joint investigation it really looks they are trying to set the record straight. What's bad about that is that our FBI has already officially blamed them and if it wasn't they'll look like idiots having to admit they are wrong. That could be a possible problem in the near future depending on how things progress.

a reply to: mOjOm

Sony has been hacked on and off for the Last 10 years...

I don't think it's north korea at all. The FBI and the whitehouse came up with the play.. Already talking about new rules for the internet, and getting an international agreement about such.

Sony pissed off many people a long time ago and continued to do so.

Why does Sony keep getting hacked? 2011

"Sony's perceived abuse of the legal system in targeting reverse-engineer George Hotz infuriated hacker groups," said Randy Abrams, director of technical education at ESET, an IT security firm.

Sony had drummed up "significant antipathy" as the result of a 2005 scandal involving Sony CDs that automatically installed a rootkit that made users' computers vulnerable to attack.

The PlayStation Network attack appears to have set off an avalanche of follow-ups.

"Other hackers and hacking groups realized they could jump on the bandwagon and break into other Sony properties and get in the news," said Richard Wang, manager of Sophos Labs, a security vendor.

"Prior to the PSN hack, the loosely organized Anonymous group had waged war against Sony, reflecting the opinion of a significant share of netizens who got infuriated by Sony's corporate attitude," said Guillaume Lovet, a senior manager of the threat response team at Fortinet. "But now, from being a target for opinion reasons only, it also became a target 'just for the lulz,' for [hacker group] lulzsecurity and others."