James Comey Reaffirms FBI’s Position on Sony Hacking

The FBI is not backing down from its position that North Korea’s government was responsible for the recent Sony cyber attack, according to various news reports. FBI Director James Comey revealed several details to support this conclusion during a speech at the International Conference on Cyber Security at Fordham University on Wed. January 7, 2015. North Korea vehemently denies any involvement.

Comey said that the hackers left evidence that were traced to IP addresses exclusive to North Korea. “It was a mistake by them,” he said, “It made it very clear who was doing this.” He also said the Sony attack had “clear links” to malware developed by North Korea and indicated that the same tools were used in an attack last year on South Korean banks and media outlets.

Comey said the evidence the FBI has should undermine the skepticism of some cyber experts that the hacking was done by individual hackers or an aggrieved insider. “I have very high confidence about this attribution to North Korea, as does the entire intelligence community,” he said, but was reluctant to reveal additional information on how North Korea was pinpointed as the source of the attack “because it will happen again, and we have to preserve our methods and sources.”

Earlier on Wednesday, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper also said that North Korea will continue attacks against American interests and apparently named Lt. Gen. Kim Yong Chol of North Korea’s Reconnaissance General Bureau as the one who would have to give the go ahead for such cyber attacks.