The Cyber Attribution Challenge

By Rhea Siers

Rhea Siers is the former Deputy Associate Director for Policy at NSA.  She currently works as a cybersecurity and national security consultant, attorney and educator and teaches at the Elliott School of International Affairs (George Washington University) and Johns Hopkins University.

Nearly a year ago, we witnessed an act of cyber destruction directed against the networks of Sony Pictures Entertainment.  The destruction was serious and somewhat unprecedented – frozen computers, leaked proprietary and personal information accompanied by threats against movie theaters.   After the attack came an argument about attribution—whodunit?—lasting several weeks within and outside the cyber security community.  Theories and counterclaims shot across cyber publications and blogs.

Shortly after the attack, the FBI fingered the North Koreans, who had previously engaged in a more limited pattern of cyber activity, targeting South Korea, with little indication that the country had grander plans.  Arguments raged over the technical data, over whether the FBI knew what it was talking about, and over claims that the North Koreans didn’t have a clear motive for the attack (as if getting into the head of North Korean leader Kim Jong-eun was an easy matter).   

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Categorized as:Cyber Tech/CyberTagged with:

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