We find ourselves faced by a new and real threat from an old foe halfway across the globe. North Korea is definitely the most paranoid country in the world, isolating and repressing its own people for decades. This rogue nation is evidently responsible for hacking into SONY Pictures' emails and has already caused big disruption in this Japanese company to the point where SONY has backed off from the Christmas release of "The Interview", a movie farce about a fictional CIA plot to kill North Korean leader Kim Jung-Un. So, why should our government, much less the rest of America, care that much about a foreign company's cyber security woes? A lot of Americans reacted by saying they had no interest in this movie to begin with. Others felt the whole movie's premise was just inviting trouble anyway. Who cares?
Every freedom-loving citizen on the planet should care. This went beyond an embarrassing or costly data breach. Movie houses who show "The Interview" were threatened with 9/11 scale attacks. SONY and major theatre chains quickly scrapped plans to show it. That seemed to accomplish what North Korea wanted, so they kicked it up another notch. The perpetrators then increased their demands, telling everyone not to even think about releasing "The Interview" (including its trailers) online, on DVD or in any form. Actor George Clooney called on his industry to stand up to this international blackmail, but supportive voices were conspicuously silent.
North Korea has effectively exercised censorship in this case. It is hard to imagine Kim Jung-Un stopping there. Will our electrical grid or defense capabilities be in the crosshairs next? This should be an issue on everyone's radar. Cyber terror has just sounded a huge wakeup call.
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