In light of the recent reporting debacle with Rolling Stone and the UVA rape case, there’s nothing wrong with a little skepticism with MSM reporting.
Which brings us to the ongoing story of the hack of Sony’s computer system that the MSM now says in near unison is the work of North Korea. Note the similarity in the four accounts below that rely on anonymous sources in the government and defectors for their reporting:
Senior administration officials, who would not speak on the record about the intelligence findings, said the White House was debating whether to publicly accuse North Korea of what amounts to a cyberterrorism attack. Sony capitulated after the hackers threatened additional attacks, perhaps on theaters themselves, if the movie, “The Interview,” was released.
Intelligence officials believe with “99 percent certainty” that hackers working for the North Korean government carried out the attack, said one individual who was briefed on the investigation and spoke on the condition of anonymity. But the administration hasn’t figured out what to do, U.S. officials said.
CNN:
U.S. investigators say an announcement pinning the blame on hackers working for the Pyongyang regime could come as soon as Thursday.
Because of the North Korean regime’s tight control of the Internet in the reclusive country, U.S. officials believe the hack was ordered directly by the country’s leadership.
North Korea experts say the country has spent its scarce resources on building up a unit called “Bureau 121” to carry out cyber attacks.
Despite its poverty and isolation, North Korea has poured resources into a sophisticated cyber-warfare cell called Bureau 121, defectors from the secretive state said as Pyongyang came under the microscope for a crippling hack into computers at Sony Pictures Entertainment.
So we have anonymous sources and defectors feeding information to the press. Where’s the confirmation? North Korea could be behind the attack, but why should we take the Obama administration sources at their word? More evidence, please.
There are competing theories out there on who is behind the attack, namely that it was perpetrated by a Sony insider or some other aggrieved group and not North Korea. Note, as reported by Wired, North Korea and “The Interview” were not even mentioned when the first hacked documents were released:
@rianjohnson @CartoonElectro Im honestly still skeptical. See: http://t.co/kvlXi2wJBg but yes the new gov attribution is a new data point.
— Joe (@Rarn) December 18, 2014
An excerpt from the Wired piece above:
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.
Extortion is very different than state-sponsored cyber-terrorism.
And this:
https://twitter.com/mcantelon/status/545505039804948480
An excerpt from the “Marc’s Security Ramblings” post above:
3. It’s clear from the hard-coded paths and passwords in the malware that whoever wrote it had extensive knowledge of Sony’s internal architecture and access to key passwords. While it’s plausible that an attacker could have built up this knowledge over time and then used it to make the malware, Occam’s razor suggests the simpler explanation of an insider. It also fits with the pure revenge tact that this started out as.
If the above is true, then how did the Norks get this type of access?
Over to you MSM. Are you going to do some reporting now or are you content to write down whatever your anonymous administration sources tell you?
Oh, and if North Korea is behind the hack, we look forward to the MSM reporting on how Team Obama somehow missed the Norks becoming such a grave threat to U.S. interests.
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Related:
‘Lawyers ruin everything.’ Was Sony’s cancellation of ‘The Interview’ the smart legal move?
#GamerGate points out the ‘delicious irony’ of Seth Rogen
Rob Lowe likens Hollywood to one of history’s most famous ‘appeasers’
‘Disgraceful’: Judd Apatow slams theaters’ decision to pull ‘The Interview’
‘Nutless weasels’: US theater chains take a beating for yanking ‘Interview’; Updated
Hooray for Pyongyangwood’! Vague threats drive studio to scrap another NK-set film
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