Related: Terrorists to Attack AmeriKan Movie Theaters This Christmas
Is it supposed to be a comedy because this is getting ridiculous.
"US calls Sony hacking ‘serious national security matter’" by Ellen Nakashima, Washington Post December 19, 2014
WASHINGTON — The suspected North Korea computer attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment is a ‘‘serious national security matter,’’ White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Thursday, as officials said the Obama administration is preparing to publicly name the country behind the devastating hack.
Earnest said that the White House is weighing options for a ‘‘proportional’’ response to the attack, whose ramifications President Obama is monitoring ‘‘very closely himself.’’
Public attribution of the attack could come as early as this week, one national security official said.
That's it then. Going Christmas shopping, to dinner, and the movies is out.
You CAN'T RISK IT, readers!
US intelligence officials have concluded that the government of Kim Jong Un is behind the attack. North Korea has publicly denied involvement.
Yeah, and Saddam had nuclear weapons, okay.
‘‘This destructive activity merits an appropriate response,’’ Earnest said, characterizing the hack discovered last month that resulted in the theft of massive troves of executives’ e-mails and sensitive internal documents. The hackers also deleted data on hard drives.
Since when did the U.S. government start working for Sony?
The attack came in apparent retaliation for Sony’s planned Christmas Day release of a comedy built around the assassination of the North Korean leader.
Earnest’s remarks indicate the White House has elevated a case of hacking a Hollywood movie studio to a government-to-government level, signalling to the North Koreans that there will be a US response of some sort.
As long as it isn't a bombing raid or drone missile strikes I guess I'm okay with it.
How about some worthless sanctions instead?
I mean, I really don't want a WAR STARTED because of what happened to some Hollywood studio!
What is WRONG with this ADMINISTRATION?
On Wednesday, bowing to threats of violence this week from the hackers against theaters that ran the film, Sony canceled the movie’s release. It was, analysts said, a stunning capitulation to the hackers’ demands and sets a worrying precedent that could encourage more cyberattacks.
That's the cover excuse for more AmeriKan skullduggery, as well as helping to shut down free speech and give government more control of the web. Cui bono from the hacking?
As for bowing to threats of violence, have you ever heard U.S. leaders and their war talk?
The hack also spotlights North Korea’s burgeoning cyberwarfare capabilities and its increased willingness to use a tool that can be wielded to disproportionate effect against countries with much larger and more powerful militaries and economies.
HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!
This IS a COMEDY!
The administration has made it clear for several years that in response to cyberattacks, it has a range of diplomatic, economic, legal, and military options at its disposal.
I don't like that last one!
Over what they did to a Hollywood studio (if it was the accused; consider whose leveling the charge)? It's not like they attacked the Pentagon, right?
WTF?
It is unlikely, however, that officials will announce the responses it is considering or the one it chooses.
‘‘There’s a lot of options,’’ one official said. ‘‘They likely won’t be discussed publicly any time soon.’’
Meaning North Korea will be bombed or hacked, we will not be told, the world media will report it, the U.S. government will deny involvement, and the AmeriKan media will keep it out their papers.
Intelligence officials ‘‘know very specifically who the attackers are,’’ said one individual familiar with the investigation, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the case is ongoing.
Ooooooooh!
They are North Korean government personnel, the individual said.
CRAP!
Some analysts say that although North Korea poses a challenge because it is not tied into the global economy, lacks trade or diplomatic relations with the United States, and is already under international sanctions for its nuclear program, it is important for the United States to respond.
There is the reason for all the propaganda right there. North Korea not hooked into the New World Order.
Steps might include indicting the individuals it believes conducted the hack, asking like-minded states to join in condemning the action, and if North Korea persists, undertaking a covert action to dismantle the computer systems used in the operation.
You mean the U.S. might HACK INTO THEIR SYSTEMS!? They can do that?
The attack marks the first known intrusion by North Korea into US computer networks and was improbably effective: Not only were the hackers able to penetrate Sony’s system and root around for three weeks before being detected, but they cowed one of Hollywood’s biggest entertainment firms into pulling a movie.
And that brings up a serious question: lack of motive!
‘‘This is a master stroke,’’ said Ken Gause, director of international affairs at CNA Corp., a federally funded think tank. ‘‘North Korea has always been very good at brinksmanship and provocation. We underestimate their guile and their ability to conduct a strategy like this.’’
Globe really makes you think sometimes.
If it is the North Koreans, said Joseph Bermudez, chief analytics officer for AllSource Analysis, ‘‘they’ve just achieved something that they haven’t been able to achieve yet to date: the ability to affect US society at such a grand level.’’
North Korea had a fledgling computer attack capability in the late 1980s, but it did not begin to develop until the late 1990s, when Kim Jong Il’s oldest son, Kim Jong Nam, was given the responsibility of developing a computer center in Pyongyang.
Cyber was seen as a way to help close the gap in military capability with countries such as the United States and its ally, South Korea.
How can they know that if North Korea is so closed?
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Related: Sony Hack Bears Hallmarks of U.S. Intelligence Operation
Time to surrender:
"By withdrawing ‘The Interview,’ Sony surrenders to terror" December 19, 2014
There’s little doubt that the Seth Rogen film comedy “The Interview” pushes the boundaries of good taste: The plot involves an assassination attempt on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. In the final reel, Kim’s head explodes.
Or so reports say. Aside from a few movie-industry insiders, no one else will get to see “The Interview,” following Sony Pictures Entertainment’s announcement on Wednesday that it was canceling the film’s scheduled Christmas Day release and that it has no plans to issue the film in any format, including DVD and live streaming.
As Globe film critic Ty Burr pointed out,
cinematic violence — or threats of violence — to actual living people
(not to mention thinly disguised fictional stand-ins) is not
unprecedented. The 2006 British indie-release “The Death of a President”
depicted the death of then-President George W. Bush. The 1988 comedy
“The Naked Gun” included a plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth. Kim Jong
Il (Kim’s father), was dispatched in “South Park” creators Trey Parker
and Matt Stone’s 2004 puppet animation “Team America: World Police”
(graphically impaled on Kaiser Wilhelm’s spiked helmet). But “The
Interview,” according to some film historians, presents the first
killing of a sitting world leader in a major studio release.
The tell there is that the North Koreans never said anything about Team America.
The cancellation of the release of “The Interview” was the
culmination of a series of cyberattacks on Sony related to the film —
anonymous hackers had released bundles of potentially damaging emails
that exposed snide communications between Sony executives. North Korea
denied any involvement in the hacking, but also voiced support for this
“patriotic” act, calling the movie “terrorism” and “an act of war.”
Finally, the hackers issued a statement: “Remember the 11th of September 2001. We recommend you keep yourself distant from places at that time.”
That
may have been bluster; the Department of Homeland Security released a
statement, that there was “no specific, credible threat information that
would suggest any attack was imminent.” Still, Sony left it up to the
various theater chains — representing a reported 19,200 screens —
whether they wanted to show the film. When several backed out, Sony
withdrew the movie entirely.
A terror threat at malls during holiday shopping season is not something any theater owner wants — or should have to — face. And one of the chains involved, Cinemark, has legitimate concerns, since it had faced lawsuits following the 2012 shootings at its Aurora, Colo., theater, in which its defense was that the incident was not foreseeable. That defense probably wouldn’t have held here.
I hadn't mentioned it, but I thought of Aurora when this latest psyop was promoted. My reaction was been there, done that.
And yet, how serious was that threat, and how serious the liability? And should corporate liability — as opposed to genuine concern for public safety — be a factor in a post-9/11 era in which everything from lack of military resolve to failure to go shopping is considered evidence that “the terrorists have won”? By caving to anonymous hackers, Sony really has given terror a victory. And in suggesting that cyberterror is a precursor to violence, they’ve given us all something new to fear.
Movie-goers could have decided for themselves whether they wanted to “risk” going to a Seth Rogen movie in a theater, just as we all made a choice about whether to go to mass public events after 9/11, or the July 4 Esplanade celebration barely three months after the Marathon bombings. Now we don’t even have a choice about whether to rent “The Interview” on DVD. In the eyes of Sony, apparently, it’s easier to be afraid.
--more--"
Okay, so Who Hacked Sony?
"Rogen and Goldberg didn’t anticipate ‘Interview’ controversy" December 19, 2014
When Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg screened “The Interview”
in Boston earlier this month, the movie’s co-directors assumed they
were just giving fans a sneak peek of a goofy comedy the rest of us
could see Christmas Day. But then Sony’s e-mail system was hacked,
damaging missives from studio boss Amy Pascal were leaked to the media, premieres of the comedy were canceled, and, this week, the movie was shelved altogether.
Rogen and Goldberg told us that “The Interview” was, ironically, an
easy sell to the studio. They just pitched the idea and were told to
roll with it. In fact, they said, the benign comedy “Neighbors,”
starring Rogen, Zac Efron, and Rose Byrne, about a couple at war with a nearby frat house, was harder to get made.
“For
all the, you know, hullaballoo surrounding [“The Interview”], it was
oddly the easiest movie to actually get made,” Rogen said.
The audience who attended the screening of “The Interview” at Theatre 1 at the Revere Hotel a few weeks ago responded positively. The biggest laughs came during a cameo by Eminem, a scene with James Franco singing Katy Perry, and at the end of the film, which features the Scorpions song “Winds of Change.”
--more--"
"‘Team America: World Police’ pulled from theaters
Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s North Korea comedy ‘‘Team America: World Police’’ also has been pulled from theaters. After Sony dropped its planned Dec. 25 release of ‘‘The Interview’’ on Wednesday, a handful of theaters plugged in 10-year anniversary screenings of ‘‘Team America,’’ the 2004 puppet film that parodies former North Korea leader Kim Jong Il. Cleveland’s Capitol Theatre said its long-planned ‘‘Team America’’ screening was canceled Thursday by Paramount Pictures, the studio that released the film. Texas’s Alamo Drafthouse also said it was pulling ‘‘Team America’’ showings on Dec. 27 ‘‘due to circumstances beyond our control.’’ (AP)
And here is wisdom:
Sony, ‘The Interview,’ and the power of satire
Is she kidding?
"The evidence indicates the SONY hack was done by disgruntled ex-employees of SONY itself. Yet the White House has hastily put together a frame-up of North Korea, and unlike the Benghazi attack, the movie that is supposed to be the root cause of it all actually does exist.
So what is going on?
One possibility is that SONY will reverse its decision (under covert pressure from the White House) and go ahead with the Christmas Day release of "The Interview." This will be followed by multiple bombings of movie theaters across America. Just like 9-11, this will be "justification" for war against the "attacker", which we are being assured is North Korea. War with North Korea opens the door to war with China and through China, Russia, all to protect the paper dollar from the Ruble and the Yuan. Millions will die and the world will go back to being enslaved to the private central bankers for another hundred years." -- whatreallyhappened
That's no joke.
Or maybe the North Koreans will assassinate Obama, huh?
