Chuck C. Johnson Wrong Again: FBI Conclusively Links N. Korea to Sony Hack
All week long, right wing smear merchant Chuck C. Johnson has been ranting on Twitter about his goofy theory that North Korea had nothing to do with the Sony hack, claiming to have proof from “Sony insiders,” and demanding apologies from anyone who dared to suggest otherwise. A small sample of his dozens of boasting tweets:
I’m now offering $15,000 for anyone who has irrefutable proof that #NorthKorea was behind the #SonyHack.
— Charles C. Johnson (@ChuckCJohnson) December 18, 2014
I hate North Korea’s tyranny and would gladly join whatever privates effort to kill Kim Jong Un. But #NorthKorea didn’t do the #SonyHack.
— Charles C. Johnson (@ChuckCJohnson) December 18, 2014
So when is everyone who blamed #NorthKorea going to apologize for running with that claim?
— Charles C. Johnson (@ChuckCJohnson) December 18, 2014
The more I learn from Sony insiders about Sony’s security system the more obvious it becomes that North Korea wasn’t behind Sony hack.
— Charles C. Johnson (@ChuckCJohnson) December 19, 2014
http://t.co/6ZmImXdiOt will publish overwhelming evidence that Sony hack was not the work of #NorthKorea hackers later tonight.
— Charles C. Johnson (@ChuckCJohnson) December 19, 2014
Et cetera, et cetera.
If you’ve been following the sad saga of the Ginger Avenger and his long-running habit of shooting himself in the foot, you probably already know where this is headed.
Yes, that’s right — the FBI announced today that they have conclusively linked North Korea to the Sony cyber-attack.
Some of the evidence they cite in their statement:
Technical analysis of the data deletion malware used in this attack revealed links to other malware that the FBI knows North Korean actors previously developed. For example, there were similarities in specific lines of code, encryption algorithms, data deletion methods, and compromised networks.
The FBI also observed significant overlap between the infrastructure used in this attack and other malicious cyber activity the U.S. Government has previously linked directly to North Korea. For example, the FBI discovered that several Internet protocol (IP) addresses associated with known North Korean infrastructure communicated with IP addresses that were hardcoded into the data deletion malware used in this attack.
Separately, the tools used in the SPE attack have similarities to a cyber attack in March of last year against South Korean banks and media outlets, which was carried out by North Korea.
Hmmm. Who do we believe? The FBI’s investigators, or Chuck C. Johnson’s “anonymous sources?” It’s a real quandary.
We notice, however, that for every single recent breaking story, Chuck has claimed to have anonymous sources right in the middle of it. A cynical person might begin to suspect he’s just inventing these “sources” to inject himself into the news.