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	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; cyberwar</title>
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		<title>North Korea&#8217;s War on Sony</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/mark-tapson/north-koreas-war-on-sony/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=north-koreas-war-on-sony</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/mark-tapson/north-koreas-war-on-sony/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 23 Dec 2014 05:24:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mark Tapson]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cyberwar]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hacking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kim Jong-Un]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[North Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sony]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[War]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=247991</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Why pop culture matters.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/north-korea-kim-jong-un.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-247994" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/north-korea-kim-jong-un-450x338.jpg" alt="north-korea-kim-jong-un" width="292" height="219" /></a>If anyone still needs convincing that pop culture matters, that even the frivolous fluff can impact politics and world affairs, here is dramatic evidence: an otherwise unremarkable Hollywood comedy that hasn’t even been released yet has led to the crippling cyber-hacking of a major corporation, threats of 9/11-style terrorism against movie theaters and other targets including the White House, self-censorship by the entertainment industry, and increased tension between the U.S. and North Korea’s already unstable and belligerent Kim Jong Un, each of whom blames the other while a suspiciously quiet China watches from the sidelines. And the fiasco isn’t over yet.</p>
<p>For those who haven’t been following the story, it began in recent weeks when a hacker group calling itself Guardians of Peace cyber-attacked Hollywood’s Sony studios and released thousands of the production company’s private emails and other confidential information like employee Social Security numbers. It’s been devastating in a number of ways, including internal turmoil arising out of embarrassing emails that may end in the sacking of film chairman Amy Pascal – not to mention an estimated $100 million blow to Sony.</p>
<p>The instigation for the hacking seems to be an upcoming Sony comedy called <i>The Interview</i>, starring James Franco and Seth Rogan as talk show hosts who are coerced by the CIA into assassinating tyrant Kim Jong Un during a trip to North Korea to interview him. Kim was not amused by the concept; neither were many progressives who felt that a comedy about killing a head of state was in poor taste and that Sony brought the subsequent hacking upon itself (of course, these are the same people who thought that a 2006 <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-405644/George-Bush-assassination-film-wins-award.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">feature film about the assassination of George W. Bush</span></a> was just dandy). Class action lawsuits from Sony employees who were affected by the cyber attack are <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/new-lawsuit-claims-sony-s-758443"><span style="color: #0433ff;">gearing up</span></a>, claiming that “Sony knew it was reasonably foreseeable that producing a script about North Korea&#8217;s leader Kim Jong Un would cause a backlash.”</p>
<p>After an investigation, the FBI officially <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2014/12/17/us-government-saw-interview-approved-theaters-upping-security/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">declared</span></a> that North Korea was behind the hacking (while not necessarily originating from inside its borders), which Obama called an act not of war, but of vandalism; he promised a “proportional response.” The totalitarian state took great umbrage at the accusation; it not only denied the attack, it generously offered to help the U.S. ferret out the real culprit, much like O.J. Simpson offered to help find his wife’s killer. The North Korean news media even <a href="https://docs.zoho.com/writer/ropen.do?rid=b6wwvb9f5be98f2b840829a0785b152ed84b9#bookmark="><span style="color: #0433ff;">accused</span></a> the U.S. of “gangster-like behavior” and claimed to have evidence that our government itself was deeply involved in the production of <i>The Interview</i>. “Toughest counteraction will be taken against the White House, the Pentagon and the whole US mainland, the cesspool of terrorism,” threatened a statement from North Korea.</p>
<p>The Guardians of Peace followed up the cyber-attack by issuing a threat of possible terrorist activity against any theaters that dared screen <i>The Interview</i>. “The world will be full of fear,” read their English-challenged message:</p>
<blockquote><p>We will clearly show it to you at the very time and places “The Interview” be shown, including the premiere, how bitter fate those who seek fun in terror should be doomed to. Soon all the world will see what an awful movie Sony Pictures Entertainment has made…</p>
<p>Remember the 11th of September 2001. We recommend you to keep yourself distant from the places at that time. (If your house is nearby, you’d better leave.) Whatever comes in the coming days is called by the greed of Sony Pictures Entertainment. All the world will denounce the SONY.</p></blockquote>
<p>The Department of Homeland Security <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/sony-hack-no-evidence-active-758460"><span style="color: #0433ff;">said</span></a> that there was “no credible intelligence to indicate an active plot against movie theaters within the United States.” But stars Seth Rogan and James Franco <a href="http://variety.com/2014/film/news/seth-rogen-and-james-franco-cancel-all-media-appearances-for-the-interview-1201380917/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">cancelled</span></a> all media appearances in the wake of the controversy. Most theater chains <a href="http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/12/18/theater-chains-opting-not-to-show-the-interview"><span style="color: #0433ff;">opted</span></a> not to show the film, and then Sony <a href="http://variety.com/2014/film/news/sony-has-no-further-release-plans-for-the-interview-1201382167/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">decided</span></a> against releasing <i>The Interview</i> at all in any form — including VOD or DVD.</p>
<p>(This wasn’t the only film shut down by the recent North Korean displeasure. Shooting of actor Steve Carell’s thriller <i>Pyongyang</i>, about a Westerner in North Korea who is accused of espionage, <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/steve-carells-north-korea-thriller-758901"><span style="color: #0433ff;">has been cancelled</span></a> as well.)</p>
<p>President Obama threw Sony under the bus, claiming that they should have called him first rather than set a bad precedent by backing down to North Korea. (This is the same President whose administration blamed the murder of Ambassador Chris Stevens in Benghazi on an unknown YouTube trailer for an utterly incompetent movie about the life of the Muslim prophet Muhammad. Hillary Clinton <a href="http://hotair.com/archives/2012/10/25/father-of-seal-killed-in-benghazi-hillary-told-me-we-will-make-sure-that-the-person-who-made-that-film-is-arrested-and-prosecuted/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">told</span></a> the father of one of the Benghazi victims, “We will make sure that the person who made that film is arrested and prosecuted.”) Sony responded by claiming that it <i>did</i> contact the White House first.</p>
<p>Regardless, human rights activists <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/sony-hack-activists-drop-interview-758529?facebook_20141216"><span style="color: #0433ff;">are planning</span></a> to airlift DVDs of <i>The Interview</i> into Kim country via hydrogen balloons. Fighters for a Free North Korea, run by a former government propagandist who escaped to South Korea, has for years used balloons to get transistor radios, DVDs and other items into North Korea in order to open up the outside world to the news-deprived masses. Thor Halvorssen’s Human Rights Foundation in New York has been helping to finance the balloon drops, and will add DVD copies of <i>The Interview </i>as soon as possible.</p>
<p>Halvorssen says that Hollywood is largely unaware that its movies and TV shows are being used so effectively in this manner. The past dozen or so drops, for example, have included copies of <i>Braveheart</i>, <i>Battlestar Galactica </i>and <i>Desperate Housewives</i>. “Viewing any one of these is a subversive act that could get you executed,” Halvorssen says, “and North Koreans know this, given the public nature of the punishments meted out to those who dare watch entertainment from abroad.” [<a href="http://acculturated.com/freedom-and-the-power-of-pop-culture/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">I have written elsewhere</span></a> about these risks that the freedom-starved North Koreans undertake just to watch a contraband film] “<i>The Interview</i> is tremendously threatening to the Kims,” Halvorssen continues. “They cannot abide by anything that portrays them as anything other than a god. This movie destroys the narrative” – much like the satirical 2004 film <i>Team America: World Police</i> famously lampooned Kim Jong Un’s monstrous father.</p>
<p>While our tabloid news media seem obsessed with the more inconsequential and gossipy aspects of this affair – like the emails in which Sony executives disparage Angelina Jolie’s talent and make racial jokes at Obama’s expense – there are serious ramifications of the cyber-hacking mystery. The entertainment industry as a whole, for example, failed to show a quick and united resistance to the threats of a foreign tyrant. But more significantly, the Guardians of Peace exposed America’s vulnerability to the warfare of the future – cyberwar.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p><em>Don&#8217;t miss Shillman Journalism Fellow <strong>Mark Tapson</strong> on the <strong>Glazov Gang</strong> discussing<strong> Fighting the Culture War</strong>:</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/v5gR4E5UPB8" width="460" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>.</b></p>
<p><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://horowitzfreedomcenter.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=caa6f67f1482e6214d83be62d&amp;id=c761755bdf" target="_blank"><b>Subscribe</b></a><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> to Frontpage&#8217;s TV show, <i>The Glazov Gang</i>, and </strong><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank"><b>LIKE</b></a><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> it on </strong><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank"><b>Facebook.</b></a></p>
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		<title>Iran takes fight to opposition online &#8211; Times Online</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/jlaksin/iran-takes-fight-to-opposition-online-times-online/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=iran-takes-fight-to-opposition-online-times-online</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/jlaksin/iran-takes-fight-to-opposition-online-times-online/#respond</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 15 Feb 2010 19:24:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jacob Laksin]]></dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=50445</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Iran’s clerical rulers, who succeeded in suppressing widespread demonstrations last week by blanketing Tehran with security, are escalating a cyberwar to combat the increasingly powerful role of the internet in mobilising their opponents. Visitors to the website of the main challenger in last June’s disputed presidential election were greeted by an image of the Iranian [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Iran’s clerical rulers, who succeeded in suppressing widespread demonstrations last week by blanketing Tehran with security, are escalating a cyberwar to combat the increasingly powerful role of the internet in mobilising their opponents.</p>
<p>Visitors to the website of the main challenger in last June’s disputed presidential election were greeted by an image of the Iranian flag and an AK-47 assault rifle. “Stop being agents for those who are safely in the US and are using you,” they were told.</p>
<p>Another prominent opposition site was sabotaged, the internet was slowed down and threats were made to close Google’s Gmail system and set up Iran’s own national email service, a move that would allow government surveillance of the net.</p>
<p>A group calling itself the Iran Cyber Army has claimed responsibility for hacking into both opposition sites. This is the outfit that brought down Twitter for several hours last December when huge antigovernment protests were shaking the regime.</p>
<p>via <a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article7026358.ece">Iran takes fight to opposition online &#8211; Times Online</a>.</p>
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		<title>John Arquilla: Why is America still letting online jihadists run amok?, Foreign Policy</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2009/jlaksin/john-arquilla-why-is-america-still-letting-online-jihadists-run-amok-foreign-policy/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=john-arquilla-why-is-america-still-letting-online-jihadists-run-amok-foreign-policy</link>
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		<pubDate>Sun, 13 Dec 2009 20:37:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jacob Laksin]]></dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=41644</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The five young men detained in Pakistan this week &#8212; like a whole new generation of jihadis &#8212; appear to have made considerable use of the Internet in their alleged approach to al Qaeda. Their story points out that, nine years after 9/11, terrorist networks are still not only able to stay in touch via [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The five young men detained in Pakistan this week &#8212; like a whole new generation of jihadis &#8212; appear to have made considerable use of the Internet in their alleged approach to al Qaeda. Their story points out that, nine years after 9/11, terrorist networks are still not only able to stay in touch via cyberspace, but that they are even extending their reach thanks to our giving them a free ride in the virtual domain.U.S. President Barack Obama often speaks about his central strategic objective of denying al Qaeda its haven in Waziristan, but he says nary a word about taking away its &#8220;virtual haven&#8221; in cyberspace. This omission is more than his alone, as none of the key military, intelligence, and law-enforcement arms of the U.S. government have done much to curtail terrorist use of the Net.</p>
<p>via <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/12/11/how_to_lose_a_cyberwar?print=yes&amp;hidecomments=yes&amp;page=full">How to Lose a Cyberwar &#8211; By John Arquilla | Foreign Policy</a>.</p>
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