Sony Hack Attack Likely Backed By North Korea, Says House Intel Committee Chair

Evidence suggests North Korea was involved in the massive hack attack on Sony, according to outgoing House Intelligence Committee chair Mike Rogers (R-Mich).

“I would argue, as a former FBI guy, that when a nation state says that this group who doesn’t know who we are but did this on behalf of the North Korean people … and we appreciate it…As we would say in the FBI, ‘That is a clue’,” Rogers said this morning at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast in Washington.

The North Korean government has denied responsibility for the hack, which leaked reams of internal documents and took down Sony’s computer system, but called the action a “righteous deed,” Washington newspaper The Hill reported Rogers saying at the breakfast.

North Korea has blasted Sony for moving ahead with its comedy The Interview, a comedy about a plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Rogers said he is “fairly confident” North Korea is responsible “given the public information.”

“We want to thank Amy Pascal for having the balls to make this movie,” Seth Rogen said Thursday night at the subdued world premiere of The Interview, which has been closely associated with the company’s hack attack.

The next morning, in Washington, Rogers said the Sony attack resembled the campaign, DarkSeoul, which hit banks and media companies across South Korea last year, but added new techniques. For instance, he thinks Sony hackers have maintained a backdoor into the computer network.

“So, by the time you get it back up, they can whack you again,” Rogers said, adding, “Sony is a game changer when it comes to cyber in the United States.”

The Interview was first conceived in 2011, the year Kim Jong Un succeeded his father as North Korea’s Supreme Leader. Sony gave it the go-ahead the following spring.