What If North Korea Wasn’t Behind the Sony Hack?

The latest theory on the culprit behind the devastating cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment, presented to the FBI, blamed the attacks on one or more insiders working in concert with known hackers.

In an independent analysis, representatives from security firm Norse found a 10-year veteran of Sony Pictures with a technical background and access to the studio’s networks who was laid off in 2014, and individuals previously associated with LulzSec, which claimed responsibility for a 2011 attack on the Sony Pictures website. Norse Senior Vice President Kurt Stammberger said it’s clear the attackers had some kind of inside-assist: The malware used to infiltrate Sony’s corporate network had the addresses of individual computer servers written into the code. “This was super-duper targeted. That’s why it was so effective,” Stammberger said. “They knew precisely how Sony’s network was architected, exactly where all of its critical data was kept. That’s why so much of their data has spilled out onto the Internet.”