Clooney, Penn, Obama, Romney - Sony and the First Amendment Brought Them Together

The reaction of President Obama, the FBI and America to the Sony cyber attack is playing like the trailer for a new movie. The extraordinarily public reaction from the highest levels of American government must be compared to far more vital US domestic interests that have taken hits from foreign hackers in recent years, including the military, major banks and makers of nuclear and solar power whose trade secrets were siphoned off with a few clicks. This is not to make light of the Sony Pictures Entertainment case, in which the hackers who hit Sony days before Thanksgiving crippled the network, stole gigabytes of data and spilled into public view unreleased films and reams of private and often embarrassing executive emails. The cyber attack became public when Sony employees logged onto their computers to find a menacing screen message saying they had been hacked by a group calling itself Guardians of Peace. ~~~~~ American politicians and film stars have been very vocal, and have made some strange bedfellows. George Clooney said that the Sony cyber attack is a dangerous challenge to "freedom of expression, privacy and personal liberties." Sean Penn called for a UN meeting for the international community, saying : "Caving to the outside threat, we make our nightmares real. The decision to pull 'The Interview' is historic. It's a case of putting short-term interests ahead of the long term. If we don't get the world on board to see that this is a game changer...we're in a very different world." And one of the first to call for action was Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential candidate, who wants Sony Pictures to release its controversial comedy, "The Interview," for free online. Romney tweeted at Sony, "@SonyPictures  don’t cave, fight: release @TheInterview  free online globally Ask viewers for voluntary $5 contribution to fight #Ebola." -- I ask you, when have Mitt Romney, George Clooney and Sean Penn ever agreed on anything? ~~~~~ But it was the very public reaction of the Obama administration Friday that put the Sony cyber attack at the head of every TV news program and newspaper in the world. President Obama revealed what many had suspected : The North Korean government was behind the 'pre-emptive retaliatory' hack. US officials are promising a response, unspecified so far. In what is certainly a first in US presidential commentary vis-à-vis private sector decisions, Obama said on Friday that Sony's decision to pull the movie was "a mistake." The President added : "I wish they had spoken to me first. I would have told them do not get into a pattern in which you're intimidated by these kinds of criminal attacks." Truly groundbreaking presidential meddling. ~~~~~ Even in a digital era with an endless cycle of cyber attacks, none has drawn the American public's attention like the Sony breach and its mingling of sensational plotlines : *An isolated dictator in a tiny hermit kingdom in Asia. *Damaging Hollywood gossip leaked from the executive suite. *Cyber terrorist attack threats against Christmas Day moviegoers. *The US President criticizing the Sony decision to withdraw the premiere of the film. *US authorities going public with their case against North Korea. ~~~~~ Why blame North Korea? Experts scoured months of system logs and learned that the attackers had conducted surveillance on the network since spring. Malware detected was similar to DarkSeoul, used in attacks on South Korea banking and media institutions and connected to North Koreans. They found the Internet protocol addresses used, including one in Bolivia that was the same as one in the DarkSeoul hack. They found time zone and language settings in Korean and malware source code that was believed to be held by North Korea. The FBI said clues included similarities to other tools developed by North Korea in specific lines of computer code, encryption algorithms and data deletion methods. Significantly, the FBI discovered that computer Internet addresses known to be operated by North Korea were communicating directly with other computers used to deploy and control the hacking tools and collect the stolen Sony files. The fact that North Korea labeled the release of "The Interview" an 'act of war' provided a motive. Seriously convincing facts.~~~~~ But, North Korea has denied hacking Sony, and today proposed a joint investigation with the US, warning of "serious" consequences if Washington said no. The White House responded by saying that it stands by its conclusion that the cyber attack was carried out by North Korea. While North Korea could have been less belligerent in asking for US help to prove its innocence, it can take some comfort in the cautious FBI announcement Friday. The FBI gave no details on remedies for Sony, no statement holding North Korea responsible for the already-known criminal acts of leaking copyright material, and no demand that North Korea return the stolen data. For the FBI to make such an announcement without suggesting what it will do is extremely unusual. We have no idea why the FBI made the public announcement, how it wants companies to work with it or what it wants the private sector to do about cyber attacks. So, while there has been much sound and fury, so far North Korea is not in an FBI dragnet, although that may be coming. ~~~~~ Dear readers, there are two remarkable aspects of the Sony cyber attack that set it apart from all other successful business hacks. First, there is the President's public criticism of Sony's decision. The White House is trying to walk back President Obama's "a mistake...I wish they had spoken to me" comment. Interviewed Friday by CNN's Candy Crowley, Obama rebutted any notion that Sony consulted with the White House on pulling "The Interview." This came after CNN aired excerpts of a separate interview in which Sony chairman Michael Lynton described reaching out to the administration. But, a source close to the administration took issue with the statement that it advised Sony on the film's release. Crowley said later on-air that Obama told her no one in the White House talked with Sony about pulling the film. "They called about the hacking," Crowley quoted Obama as telling her. In Lynton's earlier CNN interview, he said : "I personally did reach out to senior folks in the White House and talked to them about the situation and informed them we needed help," Lynton told CNN's Fareed Zakaria. Obama told Crowley that had he been approached by Sony, he would have personally talked to the movie theater chains about sticking with the December 25 release date. An unnamed senior administration official said : "There was a meeting, and they did present to the government their issue. But to say that we instructed them, or [led] them to believe that we endorsed the idea of them pulling the film is categorically incorrect. The administration, and no administration, is in the habit of instructing businesses what to do or not do or how to conduct their business." Second, there is the First Amendment free speech issue. Sony's decision to pull the film because of North Korea's cyber attack has a very "chilling effect" on Americans' constitutional right to freedom of speech. There is not a more sacred right than the First Amendment right to freedom of speech (and assembly and religion) and any attack on it is sure to unite all Americans, right, left, and center. Thus, Romney, Clooney, Penn and Obama agreeing. However, the defense of that fundamental right in a world connected by the Internet lies ahead. Americans won the first round against NSA when it was told to refine its "meta-data sweeping" of the Internet and phone lines in the name of anti-terrorist information needs. Now, we must figure out how to keep the Internet open while keeping cyber criminals out of it. The obvious first step is to teach North Korea that hacking doesn't pay -- perhaps by taking away its ability to use US Dollar accounts for its transactions. The White House has asked China to help with North Korea cyber attack solutions. That strikes me as a fox-in-the-hen-house approach. But, let's be open-minded. After all, China would probably not want all the US technology it has helped itself to by hacking into US business computer systems to be made less valuable by being stolen by North Korea hackers.