North Korea Internet outage could be a response to Sony Hack

According to a US Lawmaker North Korea Internet outage occurred in December could be a response for the cyber attack against the Sony Pictures

On December 2014, the North Korea suffered a significant network outage which isolated the country from the internet. Security experts speculated that the incident was a retaliation for the Sony hack. According to a Bloomberg report, a new revelation seems to confirm the hypothesis, Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee Michael McCaul confirmed that the outage of North Korean connection was the response of the US to the attack against the Sony Pictures Entertainment.

“There were some cyber responses to North Korea,” McCaul said at an event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee clarified that he was referring to the severe Internet outage suffered by the North Korea.

While security firms made different assumptions on the nature of attacks against the Sony Pictures, the FBI blamed the North Korea after its investigation.

“As a result of our investigation, and in close collaboration with other US Government departments and agencies, the FBI now has enough information to conclude that the North Korean government is responsible for these actions,” the FBI said Friday in a statement.

The White House hasn’t provided any official comment to McCaul McCaul’s declaration. McCaul urged the US Government to do more to protect American companies from cyber attacks. McCaul highlighted that US companies expect much more by the U.S.to retaliate against threat actors.

“What they’re telling me is that the government isn’t doing their job,” McCaul said.

McCaul also reported that the US Government and US companies are constantly hit by cyber attacks run by different actors, including state-sponsored hackers and cyber terrorists.

In reality there is a silent “cyber war” between North Korea and the US, Snowden revealed that the NSA compromised North Korea internet infrastructure with malware for years. the NSA has used its servers as hacking platforms (i.e. FOXACID) to hack in the system of foreign governments by implanting a malware. Other components involved in the attacks are Turbine and Turmoil, belonging to the Turbulence family exploitation systems. According to Snowden, the NSA also secretly tapped into South Korean network espionage on North Korean networks to collect information.

In response to the alleged cyber attack operated by the North Korea, President Barack Obama threatened a proportionate response and economic sanctions.

The McCaul’s statement led security experts to conclude that the Internet Outage was caused by an operation in a retaliatory of the Sony hack. Robert “RSnake” Hansen

Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – FBI, North Korea)