News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:FBI Director: Sony’s ‘Sloppy’ North Korean Hackers Reveal... by mason240 on Wednesday January 07, 2015 @03:43PM (#8853173)
One targeted a civilian organization, the other targeted a government installation (one could even make the case it was a military target). It's not hard to understand why some people would give one a "terrorist" label but not the other.
Re:FBI Director: Sony’s ‘Sloppy’ North Korean Hackers Reveal... by mobiplayer on Wednesday January 07, 2015 @04:16PM (#8853364)
One inflicted economic damage to a private company, but Stuxnet put several lives at risk. Saying the former is a terrorist attack means that the attacks to Target et al were terrorist attacks, too.
Re:FBI Director: Sony’s ‘Sloppy’ North Korean Hackers Reveal... by xnull1guest on Wednesday January 07, 2015 @06:17PM (#8853974)
Haven't private corporations been hacked by the US also (Brazilian PETROBRAS)?

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/09/05/us-governments...

Given the first Geneva article placing private targets within international convention if they are of military interest (including media and broadcast services), and SONY's cooperation with the State Department in producing "The Interview", might SONY then qualify under international law?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legitimate_military_target

Re:FBI Director: Sony’s ‘Sloppy’ North Korean Hackers Reveal... by csandreasen on Wednesday January 07, 2015 @10:10PM (#8854828)
Petrobras is hardly a private corporation - the Brazilian government is the majority shareholder[1]. What was done to Sony is entirely different as well - this was a clear effort to cause damage to them, not a means to gather intelligence.

Per your own link, broadcast services are only legitimate targets for attack under the Geneva Conventions if they are of fundamental military importance.

[1] http://peakenergystrategist.com/archives/tag/petrobras/

Re:FBI Director: Sony’s ‘Sloppy’ North Korean Hackers Reveal... by xnull2guest on Thursday January 08, 2015 @01:32AM (#8855250)
Petrobras is very close to 50% owned by the public, but okay. There's plenty of other examples including the IT systems of various private firms around the world, Stellar, Cetel, IABG, Huawei, Deutsche Telekom, even some multinational companies based in the US.

> What was done to Sony is entirely different as well - this was a clear effort to cause damage to them, not a means to gather intelligence.

100% agree. It is very different and establishing boundaries here is an important keystone to US cyberwarfare norm efforts. Unlike other posters I would separate sabotage from 'corporate doxxing' - Stuxnet then is very different.

> broadcast services are only legitimate targets for attack under the Geneva Conventions if they are of fundamental military importance

Which depends on the perspective - as the State Department was involved with SONY in the development of "The Interview" and the US is well known for international propaganda, I could well understand if another nation state considered the private company partners to be an extension of fundamental military importance (and certainly the US considers it a keystone of international efforts and calls it "Psychological Warfare").