2014 has been dubbed “the year of the hack” because of the number of hacks reported by the U.S. federal government and major U.S. corporations in businesses ranging from retail to banking and communications. According to one report there were 1,541 incidents resulting in the breach of 1,023,108,267 records, a 78 percent increase in the number of personal data records compromised compared to 2013. However, the 2014 hack of Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. (Sony) was unique in nature and in the way it was orchestrated and its effects.
Based in Culver City, California, Sony is the movie making and entertainment unit of Sony Corporation of America, the U.S. arm of Japanese electronics company Sony Corporation. The hack, discovered in November 2014, did not follow the usual pattern of hackers attempting illicit activities against a business. It did not specifically target credit card and banking information, nor did the hackers appear to have the usual motive of personal financial gain. The nature of the wrong and the harm inflicted was more wide ranging and their motivation was apparently ideological.
Identifying the source and nature of the wrong and harm is crucial for the allocation of legal consequences. Analysis of the wrong and the harm show that the 2014 Sony hack was more than a breach of privacy and a criminal act. If, as the United States maintains, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (hereinafter North Korea) was behind the Sony hack, the incident is governed by international law.
The argument presented in this paper is that assuming North Korea is responsible, the 2014 Sony hack at least breached U.S. sovereignty. When viewed in its entirety, arguably it constituted an orchestrated attack on the United States, although the target, adversary, method of attack and the notions of territory and damage appear very different from those in traditional warfare. This article raises the question whether this type of cyber operation is the next evolution of modern warfare. The author asserts that new thinking is needed on these issues so that countries like the United States, and the international community generally, can adequately defend and deter attacks of this nature.
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