It was no surprise that The Interview would drag a bit of controversy behind it on its way into theaters thanks to a storyline that featured a fictional assassination attempt on the leader of North Korea, but the developments over the last few weeks and especially the last 48 hours have been astonishing and a bit terrifying. And it’s only going to keep on getting weirder.
NBC News is reporting that US officials believe that North Korea is behind the cyber attack on Sony that lead to the release of sensitive materials and now the cancellation of the theatrical release of The Interview.
Officials told NBC News the hacking attack originated outside North Korea, but they believe the individuals behind it were acting on orders from the North Koreans.
“We have found linkage to the North Korean government,” according to a U.S. government source.
The officials offered no further details.
Unfortunately, allegations of state sponsored cyber crime are nothing new. Back in October, the FBI sent a warning to tech companies about Chinese government sponsored hackers. Obviously, the Sony attack is a much higher profile case now thanks to the very public embarrassment and the economic hit that Sony is being forced to endure, but that doesn’t make this matter any less delicate.
According to CNN, there could be an official announcement from the US government on this matter as soon as Thursday, so obviously we’ll keep an eye out for that and any further developments that spring out of this tension filled international incident that has inexplicably come from a f*cking James Franco movie.
Source: NBC
