The Latest Sony Attack Begs For A Stronger U.S. Policy In Defending America’s Cyber Domain

Now that American officials have determined that North Korea was “centrally involved” in the Sony hack, its time to take a closer look at the state that forced Sony Pictures to make an unprecedented decision and cancel the Christmas Day release of The Interview.

The latest Sony cyber attack teaches us that it’s time to start taking North Korea seriously. While the North Korean people are starving, its Communist Party has invested heavily into creating a Tier 1 cyber program.

North Korean defector Jang Se-yul told CNN he estimates that the authoritarian regime employs some 1,800 cyber hackers. The cyberwarriors work under a secretive agency called Bureau 121, whose mission is to “conduct cyberattacks against overseas and enemy states.” He commented further, stressing that North Korea’s cyber capabilities may be “more real and more dangerous” than its nuclear weapons program.

North Korea is far from the only actor who has waged cyber warfare against the United States.

In November and December alone, $400 Billion dollars of stolen U.S. intellectual property was paraded around by the Chinese (J-31 fighter Jet), the Russians hacked into our government databases, and the Iranians breached our critical infrastructure and security networks, to name a few of many notable incidents.

In the wake of the last two months of cyber massacres committed against the U.S. by state-actors China, Russia, and Iran, Breitbart News demonstrated how the Obama administration has a de facto policy of doing nothing against such attacks. Not only does the administration not respond to the attacks, they rarely acknowledge them.

This ultimately leaves our valued companies with three options:

1. Succumb to the demands of your attackers

2. Attempt to better defend yourself next time

3. Take vigilante justice and hack-back against the perpetrators (illegal and dangerous)

On Thursday Breitbart’s John Nolte pointed out that the “primary responsibility” of government “is to keep us safe and to protect our freedoms.”

Our government, however, has failed to protect one of our fundamental freedoms by failing to protect us. The Obama administration has shown it will not push back, nor will it defend our vulnerable institutions, or even acknowledge the ongoing cyber massacre against America.

Can we really blame Sony for folding its cards when the company knows very well that the United States will do nothing to protect them? Would they have done the same if the United States had a demonstrated track record of using its unrivaled cyber tools to fight back?

Photo: Aaron Needham