Cyber vandalism or cyber terrorism?

As South Asia was watching the terrible tragedy at Peshawar unfold, another drama was coming to a head in Hollywood. At the eye of the storm was ‘The Interview’, a comedy by Sony Pictures Entertainment that depicts a fictional assassination of North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un.

What began with the hacking of Sony Pictures computer systems at the end of November escalated when the hackers threatened 9/11-like attacks against movie theatres scheduled to show the film that fanned US-wide security fears and resulted in the four top US theatre chains pulling the movie from their screens, ultimately causing Sony to cancel the film's release.

Obama said Sony “made a mistake” in cancelling the release of the movie and that “We cannot have a society in which some dictator someplace can start imposing censorship here”. North Korea responded stating that it is not involved in the cyber-attack and US claims were "groundless slander”.

‘The Interview’ stars Seth Rogen and James Franco as frustrated television journalists recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to assassinate Kim Jong-un. In the film's climactic scene, the North Korean leader’s head is seen exploding when his helicopter is hit by a missile. Pyongyang strongly denounced the comedy as an act of terrorism and called for Sony to cancel the film. In June this year, North Korea called the plot of the film an "act of war”, and later on praised the hacking as a “righteous deed”.

On November 24 as workers at Sony Pictures Entertainment in Culver City, California, logged on to their computers they found a screen message saying they had been hacked by a group calling itself Guardians of Peace (GoP). The massive breach resulted in the leak of tens of thousands of documents, including sensitive emails and personal information.

Sony had spent about $80 million to make and market the ‘The Interview'. The cost to Sony from new software and hardware, employee labour to clean up the malware, investigation, lost productivity, and reputational damage, is estimated to be at least over a $100 million. White House officials are wary of playing into an effort by nuclear-armed North Korea to provoke the US into a direct confrontation. The US is confronted with an adversary against whom it has little or no leverage.

Two issues stand out in the Sony case; one is the chasm between the cyber offensive and defensive capabilities. The fact that North Korea, one of the most impoverished nations in the world, can launch the worst cyber-attack in US history bears testimony to the asymmetric warfare potential of cyber-attacks. Two, is the manner in which the value chain of the US movie industry came apart at the thought of being target of a cyber-attack points to our vulnerability to cyber terrorism.

By: Monish Gulati