When Sony Pictures first found its email and other networked systems compromised, it looked like another hacker prank. Emails were leaked, unreleased movies were set free on file sharing sites, and embarrassing inside info made its way to headlines.
But the world soon learned that it looked like the hack was the work of an official government cyberattack. As bizarre as it sounds, North Korea was angry about an upcoming Seth Rogen-James Franco comedy movie in which the pair kills North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
The Interview is not the first film released in America to poke fun at or portray North Korea and its leadership as villainous. Team America did it. The Red Dawn remake did it. North Korea has become the megalomaniac villain go-to in Hollywood when jihadi terrorists are just too real to portray. They are the old Soviet Red Tide of yesteryear.
But for some reason North Korea seems to have taken particular exception to Rogen and Franco in The Interview. So — if the official story is to be believed — they hacked Sony and threatened to bomb theaters that showed The Interview. So Sony pulled the movie.
Now hacktivist group Anonymous — insomuch as such a construction can be called a “group” — is declaring an “operation” against North Korea. Anonymous “members” have shown their hacking acumen in the past, and they now vow to bring that to bear against North Korea in retaliation for the Sony hack.
If North Korea can do this to Sony, a "credible" and "legitimate" conglomerate, who's to say they can't do it to their next major target?
— TheAnonMessage (@TheAnonMessage) December 19, 2014
Operation RIP North Korea, engaged. #OpRIPNK
— TheAnonMessage (@TheAnonMessage) December 19, 2014
Exactly what they plan to do has not been outlined in detail. But Anonymous may be able to bring considerable muscle to bear on the country.
Other reactions around the country seems to follow the same theme: The mighty U.S.A. should not capitulate to a snot-nosed joke like North Korea, not over matters of national security, not over international finance issues, and not even over some silly movie.
George Clooney was vocal about his opinion on what this development could mean for businesses all over the United States.
“Here, we’re talking about an actual country deciding what content we’re going to have. This affects not just movies, this affects every part of business that we have. That’s the truth. What happens if a newsroom decides to go with a story, and a country or an individual or corporation decides they don’t like it? Forget the hacking part of it. You have someone threaten to blow up buildings, and all of a sudden everybody has to bow down.
“We have a new paradigm, a new reality, and we’re going to have to come to real terms with it all the way down the line. Because this could happen to an electric company, a car company, a newsroom. It could happen to anybody.”
Clooney points out that this hacking was not just about some silly movie. North Korea showed that they were able and willing to realease potentially damaging information about American citizens.
“The hacking is terrible because of the damage they did to all those people. Their medical records, that is a horrible thing, their Social Security numbers. Then, to turn around and threaten to blow people up and kill people, and just by that threat alone we change what we do for a living, that’s the actual definition of terrorism.”
Clooney even acknowledges that there was a strategy to how North Korea released the information they did. First they made Sony a national joke by releasing emails that showed company execs making racist and derogatory statements about the people who would normally likely rush to their defense: actors and President Obama.
“Here’s the brilliant thing they did. You embarrass them first, so that no one gets on your side.”
Clooney’s opinion on what should happen now?
“Stick it [The Interview film] online. Do whatever you can to get this movie out. Not because everybody has to see the movie, but because I’m not going to be told we can’t see the movie. That’s the most important part. We cannot be told we can’t see something by Kim Jong-un, of all fucking people.”
Sean Penn warned of even further repercussions, these straight from terrorists that we take more seriously. He said in a statement to Mother Jones:
“This week, the distributors who wouldn’t show The Interview and Sony have sent ISIS a commanding invitation. I believe ISIS will accept the invitation. Pandora’s box is officially open.
“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, if this hacking doesn’t frighten the Chinese and the Russians, we’re in for a very different world, a very different country, community, and a very different culture.
“This matter should be before the UN Security Council today.”
