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Obama Blames North Korea For Sony Cyberattack, Vows US Response

President Obama vowed Friday to respond to a cyberattack on Sony Pictures that he blamed on North Korea. He also said that Sony was wrong to give in to what he called a foreign dictator imposing censorship in the United States.

Obama said the attack caused damage to Sony, but the studio should not have given in to intimidation by stopping the release of “The Interview,” a film that portrays the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to Reuters.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said it determined North Korea was behind the hack. Obama said it appears North Korea acted alone, and Washington reached out to Russia, South Korea, China and Japan to help rein in the dictatorship.

South Korea and Japan promised to cooperate. China, North Korea’s only major ally, has not yet responded.

After Obama’s criticism, Sony CEO Michael Lynton said that critics of the studio’s decision do not know the full story, according to the Huffington Post.

[quote text_size=”small” author=”– Michael Lynton” author_title=”Sony CEO”]

I think actually the unfortunate part is in this instance the president, the press and the public are mistaken as to what actually happened. We do not own movie theaters. We cannot determine whether or not a movie will be played in movie theaters.

[/quote]

On Thursday, hackers threatened to continue their assault on Sony if the studio distributed the film online or anywhere else. According to Lynton, no major distributor has come forward willing to distribute the movie.The studio said it canceled the Christmas Day release of “The Interview” after around 80% of theaters in the country decided not to screen it.

Since the attack became public on November 24, studio business information and private emails have been made available, many of which are focused on details of executive dealings with stars such as Angelina Jolie, Seth Rogen and Adam Sandler. Sony was hit with a fourth lawsuit this week by former employees claiming the studio failed to take steps to safeguard their information, according to the New York Times.

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