After U.S. officials confirmed that they believe the North Korean government was responsible for an unprecedented hacking attack against Sony Pictures, the Obama administration called for China to assist in preventing future cyber attacks from North Korea. “What we are looking for is a blocking action, something that would cripple their efforts to carry out attacks,” one official said, according to the New York Times.
North Korea’s telecommunications networks are closely linked to China, as Chinese companies operate almost all of North Korea’s networks.. When it comes to cyber-attacks in particular, U.S. officials believe North Korea often either routes its hacking attempts through Chinese servers or sends hackers to China to conduct operations. For example, a March 2013 hacking attack on South Korean banks and media companies, suspected to be the work of North Korea, reportedly originated from a Chinese IP address. Some anonymous U.S. law enforcement officials have gone further and suggested that China could have been complicit in the Sony hack, but the Obama administration’s statements have not referenced those suspicions.
China itself denounced the Sony attack, with Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying telling reporters that “China is against all forms of cyber attacks and cyber terrorism, including cyber attacks launched by any country or individual by using facilities beyond its own national borders against a third country.” That is the closest China has come so far to addressing reports that Beijing abetted the North Korean attack. Hua also said that Chinese Foreign Ministry Wang Yi had spoken with Secretary of State John Kerry over the phone about cyber security issues, although she provided no specifics on what was said.
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