Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
N. Korean charged in 2014 Sony hack
LOS ANGELES — A computer programmer working for the North Korean government has been charged with devastating cyberattacks that hacked Sony Pictures Entertainment and unleashed the WannaCry ransomware virus that infected computers in 150 countries and crippled parts of the British health care system, federal prosecutors said.
Park Jin Hyok, who is believed to be in North Korea, conspired to conduct a series of attacks that also stole $81 million from a bank in Bangladesh, according to charges unsealed Thursday in Los Angeles federal court. The U.S. believes he was working for a North Korean-sponsored hacking organization.
The 2014 Sony hack that led to the release of a trove of sensitive personal information about employees included four yet-to-be released Sony films, among them Annie, and one that was in theaters, the Brad Pitt film Fury, and cost the company tens of millions of dollars.
The FBI had long suspected North Korea was also behind last year’s WannaCry cyberattack, which used malware to scramble data on hundreds of thousands of computers at hospitals, factories, government agencies, banks and other businesses across the globe.
U.S. officials believe the Sony hack was retribution for The Interview, a comedy starring Seth Rogen and James Franco in a plot to assassinate Kim.
A Sony spokesman declined comment.