North Korea suffers Internet outage after Sony hack
In the latest episode of the Sony hack drama, it seems that North Korea - accused or orchestrating the cyber attack - is experiencing Internet outages yesterday.
A US company that monitors Internet infrastructure, Dyn Research, said: "For the past 24 hours, North Korea's connectivity to the outside world has been progressively getting degraded to the point now that they are totally offline."
Company director Doug Madory said:
"There's either a benign explanation - their routers are perhaps having a software glitch; that's possible.
"It also seems possible that somebody can be directing some sort of an attack against them and they're having trouble staying online."
North Korea has been accused of one of the biggest cyber assaults in the US. The action led to Sony Pictures withholding the release of movie The Interview.
The Interview, a satirical movie starring Seth Rogen and James Franco, portrays a fictional assassination on North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un.
After the FBI pointed to North Korea as the perpetrators behind the hack, US President Barack Obama called the decision to pull the movie from distribution "a mistake".
Retaliation against Pyongyang for cyber attack
Obama also vowed to respond to a major cyber attack on Sony Pictures "in a place and time and manner that we choose".
However, several US officials close to the Sony attack investigations said the US government has no knowledge what might have caused any outages in North Korea and is not involved in any cyber action against Pyongyang.
North Korea has denied it was to blame and has vowed to hit back against any US retaliation, threatening the White House and the Pentagon.
Pyongyang called for a joint investigation but Washingon's UN envoy, Samantha Power, called this suggestion "absurd".
Source: Reuters
Related report: North Korea says pro-Pyongyang supporters behind Sony cyber attack
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