Is it America's job to deal with the Sony hackers or Japan's?

I think hacking is a global problem. The people hacking Sony might not have been located in Japan or even the US. Reports I’ve read say North Korea is behind the hacking. Others say it wasn’t North Korea. However, any corporation could be hacked so I don’t think we can leave dealing with hacking to the country where single corporations are based.

Frankly, I think the information that’s been leaked so far has not been material that’s in the public interest. The public are interested in it, but that doesn’t make it anything we need to know. So that a Sony exec thinks Angelina Jolie is a spoiled brat, is of no business to anyone and it shouldn’t have been reported. I think the journalists who are given information should be more critical about what they do with leaked materials.

There’s a difference between this and the Snowden material and Wikileaks. At least some of the information provided by Snowden or Wikileaks was in the public interest. Journalists have a responsibility to report such material (in a considered and careful way). This is quite different.

So, no I don’t think it’s Japan’s responsibility or the responsibility of the US. I think we need a global approach to dealing with cyber terrorism.

I agree with Obama that Sony’s withdrawing of The Interview’s release is a bad move.

Yes. America has made it our job to take on the criminals of the world. It’s what’s in our best interest, as the sole ‘super-power’.

That doesn’t mean that Japan can’t participate/fund the effort. It simply means that the US has the most to loose from any lawlessness.

If a smoking gun is found in the Sony case, the entire world should be on-board with sanctions.
Little danger there, IMO.

It seems pretty clear that they are blaming it on North Korea at this point.

I came across this. I don’t know if it was or wasn’t North Korea but I still think we need to have a global approach.

Is there evidence that N. Korea is innocent? @janbb?

Sony Pictures was hacked, their LA/Hollywood office. It’s a different company than Sony of Japan.

Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. (SPE) is the American entertainment subsidiary of Japanese multinational technology and media conglomerate Sony.

Based in Culver City, California, it encompasses Sony’s motion picture, television production and distribution units. Its group sales in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2014 has been reported to be of $8 billion.

It’s an American company, with American employees who’s families were threatened simply because they worked there.

Sounds like an American problem.

I fully agree, @Earthbound_Misfit. Someone was wanting Japan and the US to hate N. Korea.

I think it’s Sony’s job and they clearly dropped the ball. They should not have caved.

Exactly @funkdaddy. This is no more Japan’s problem than a McDonald’s getting robbed in Tokyo would be a problem for the FBI.

All first world powers should be involved in hunting down hackers.

It is america’s job, because the hackers are most likely american and employed by the CIA/NSA/FBI.

Well, I had heard that it was the suits in Japan that had decided to pull the film and that is why I think Japan should be involved as well. The President is blaming North Korea and saying we will retaliate. If it is a global issue, why not address it globally, in other words, shouldn’t Japan as well be responding?

@ragingloli Sometimes, the power of your monomania still has me gobsmacked. Mostly, I just ignore it.

I do agree that it is a global issue, not solely one country’s. I just get tired when it seems that America takes on the responsibility for dealing – for good and evil – with every situation. Or maybe that is just how it’s being reported here.

@janbb
Good for you. Who are you again?

@janbb You’re absolutely right, it’s Japan’s problem. However we do have several treaties with them and if a cyber attack technically falls under a “military attack” we do have that pesky military treaty to honor.

@DWW25921 Yes, as I said above, I was a bit glib in my question but I felt from Obama’s remarks that he was taking it on as only a US vs. North Korea problem.

The NY Times today has an article stating that the US has asked for Chinese cooperation in blocking cyber-attacks since the servers used in the North Korean hackings (some previous ones) are Chinese. They’re not sure if cooperation will be forthcoming since China and the Us probably hack each other’s systems.

The silliness of the Koreans in attacking Sony over something as trivial as a movie betrays their true lack of understanding of the enormity of what they have set in motion. Isolated dirt poor and saddled with a huge inferiority complex, this latest cry of “I matter. pay attention to me, cause I can cause trouble” has gained the country its goal of being noticed. The really big risk for the “hermit kingdom” flea in biting the capitalist gorilla lies in the fact that the ape might very well conclude that the threat of future irritation justifies the elimination of the pest regardless of risks to the entire peninsula.

It’s also important to realize just how irritating it must be to the North Koreans to witness the constant portrayal of their country and its leader as a pair of tasteless jokes. The entire point to the movie is the premise that the very idea that Kim is worthy of the effort could only be the butt end of a joke.

It does sound to me like the ending of the movie in which Kim Jung Un’s head gets blown off was, atthe very least, pretty tasteless and somewhat tactless. But free speech issues are often not fought on the worthiest of sources.

Can you think of a single movie in which a sitting head of state (at the time of the film’s production) is assassinated? So low is the country’s esteem in the eyes of the world, that no one involved in its production even CONSIDERED the idea that the film might offend. I used to look at the brilliant episodes of “30 Rock” that poked fun at North Korea and wonder why the North voiced so little protest. I figured that they were a shrewd bunch that realized that calling attention to the series would merely enhance the program and turn more eyes toward viewing the episodes, and this will almost certainly be the result for the film.

The US has taken on the role of “the world’s policeman” since the First World War. Why would we stop now? We are the only nation that can afford – and prosper – from that role.

Japan directly confronting N. Korea has a real risk of a stupid, messy, physical war. Not so for the US.
We, the US, have our ally, Japan’s, back.

Been thinking a lot about the US response.

I think part of their thinking is, was there a better alternative?

I’m as scared of North Korea as anyone in the world – earlier explanation. To me, they’re the most likely trigger for a major conflict that exists in the world today, and probably for the next 20 years.

I don’t know all the evidence that pointed to North Korea, but initially it seems Sony was able to track the attack to a Hong Kong hotel (at least that’s the IP used), the code used was encoded and commented in Korean, and similar to a set of attacks on South Korean businesses. That could all be a setup as noted above, but I’d be willing to bet at this point someone has tracked down that hotel, found the room, found out who was in that room, who paid for the room, and probably have seen security footage of them coming and going.

I’d guess they either concluded that person was acting on behalf of North Korea based on all that information, or they concluded it was someone acting on behalf of China, who wanted to look like they were from North Korea.

It may also have been someone who had the whole thing in place, tried to get some cash from Sony Pictures directly, and when they didn’t pay. They decided to find other people who would pay. Maybe North Korea paid.

I’m not sure it matters when it comes to response.

So, you’re left with two questions.

1) Does something need to be done? I think that line was crossed when people who went to go see the movie were threatened with 9/11 style attacks, right? Before that it was an inconvenience to a business and a few hundred employees had been vaguely threatened. Which sucks, but probably doesn’t get a response from the government. The larger threat did.

2) If you’ve decided something needs to be done, who would you rather takes care of it? Someone was going to respond. Do we want Sony (any division) chasing down international hackers on behalf of a US company? Do we want businesses to handle their own law enforcement? I don’t think so. So you’re left with the government responding.

I think asking China to “help” is just a bit of shrewd diplomacy. If you think they might be involved, but don’t have direct evidence like you do with North Korea, ask them to help and see what their reaction is. It makes them declare their intentions so you don’t have to guess.

I don’t see a better alternative, other than acting like the whole thing meant nothing, which Sony screwed up.

And it appears there’s been a response

Internet connectivity between North Korea and the outside world, though never robust to begin with, is currently suffering one of its worst outages in recent memory, suggesting that the country may be enduring a mass cyber attack a few days after President Obama warned the US would launch a “proportional response” to North Korea’s hack against Sony.

North Korea is denying any involvement in the hacking.
And I take their word over that of the “FBI”.
What is more, the colonies have rejected the North Korean proposal of a joint investigation.
To me, that indicates that the colonies know that North Korea was not responsible.

The day after saying they wanted a joint investigation, the North Korean government released this statement

Including portions like

Strange thing that happened in the heart of the U.S., the ill-famed cesspool of injustice, is now afloat in the world as shocking news.

and

For these reasons, the DPRK is more highly praising the “guardians of peace” for their righteous deed which prevented in advance the evil cycle of retaliation– terrorism sparks terrorism.

and

The DPRK has clear evidence that the U.S. administration was deeply involved in the making of such dishonest reactionary movie.

It is said that the movie was conceived and produced according to the “guidelines” of the U.S. authorities who contended that such movies hurting the dignity of the DPRK supreme leadership and inciting terrorism against it would be used in an effective way as “propaganda against north Korea”.

and

So we watched with unusual attention what had been done by the “guardians of peace” to avert terrorism and defend justice.

It sounds like an impartial starting place for an honest investigation, right?

Am I the only one who actually thinks this is one big pile of lulz?

I certainly hope that it was the US that turned off N. Korea’s internet today.

Warning that there would be dire consequences if the US refused to form a joint investigation was just stupid. Particularly since – as @janbb pointed out in the question – Sony is in Japan.

@stanleybmanly

“Can you think of a single movie in which a sitting head of state (at the time of the film’s production) is assassinated?”

I seem to recall a movie called ‘Death of a President’ released in 2007. Bush was assassinated and was the sitting president.

@Jaxk Interesting. I never heard of it. I can think of a bunch of movies with the plot resting on assassination attempts, some of them damned good, like “Day of the Jackal”.

@stanleybmanly – It didn’t win any academy awards but raised a lot of shit. Liberal vs Conservative kind of stuff. I didn’t see it either but I remember the flack. Nobody attacked anybody however.