Sony cyber-attack: North Korea faces new US sanctions
President Barack Obama signed an executive order on Friday allowing sanctions on three North Korean organisations and 10 individuals, in response to a cyber-attack against Sony Pictures Entertainment.
The White House said the move was a response to North Korea’s “provocative, destabilising, and repressive actions”.
US sanctions are already in place over North Korea’s nuclear programme.But Friday’s actions are believed to be the first time the US has moved to punish any country for cyber-attacks on a US company.
White House officials told reporters the move was in response to the Sony hack, but the targets of the sanctions were not directly involved.
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Speaking before Christmas, President Obama said the Sony hack was “an act of cyber-vandalism”
Instead, the sanctions are designed to further isolate North Korea’s defence industry as deterrent for future cyber-attacks.
The FBI and President Obama have previously said they believe North Korea was behind the cyber-attack, although some cyber-security experts have cast doubt on this.
However, a senior White House official said it was extremely rare for the US to attribute cyber-attacks, and it was only done so because of the destructive nature of the attack, and because the White House saw it as “crossing a threshold”.
Sony was embarrassed after a group calling itself Guardians of Peace leaked data from its computers, exposing emails and personal details.Poster for the film The Interview outside of Regal Theatre in New York, 18 Dec The Interview was later distributed online
Oblique references to the 9/11 terror attacks prompted the cancellation of the film’s nationwide release. A small number of independent cinemas did screen the film, and it was released online.
Announcing Friday’s sanctions, the US said the apparent effort to stifle the movie release was part of the justification for the new restrictions.
“We take seriously North Korea’s attack that aimed to create destructive financial effects on a US company and to threaten artists and other individuals with the goal of restricting their right to free expression,” the White House said in a statement.
“Today’s actions are the first aspect of our response.”
North Korea has blamed the US for lengthy internet outages in the country last week.
Source:BBCnews
