Federal investigators have linked the cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment to North Korea, and a formal announcement by the Department of Justice could be made as early as Thursday, according to media reports today out of Washington, D.C.
CNN cited an unnamed source who said the cyberattack that struck the studio last month — compromising personal information of employees, publicizing scripts of films in development and exposing sometimes-embarrassing internal emails — was carried out by hackers working at the behest of North Korea.
A host of other media outlets, including NBC, ABC and USA Today, quickly filed similar reports, all citing unnamed sources.
North Korea has been a focal point of speculation about the attack in light of the studio’s planned release of the film “The Interview,” about an assassination attempt on dictator Kim Jong-un.
The hackers have identified themselves on file-sharing sites at the Guardians of Peace. On Tuesday, they posted a threat of violence against theaters that show “The Interview,” leading some major theater chains to cancel plans to carry the film. In response, Sony today canceled the film’s planned Christmas Day release.
— City News Service