Cyber Statecraft Initiative Director Jason Healey writes for Christian Science Monitor on how the United States should respond to North Koreas’s hack of Sony:
It’s a story more bizarre than any Hollywood script about out-of-control hackers, but it turns out the North Koreans actually were behind the hack against Sony Pictures.
President Obama said Friday that we will “respond proportionately and in a place and time and manner that we choose.” What this really means for now is that the administration will keep the issue quiet, continue the focus on Cuba, and allow DC to take a year-end vacation.
Mr. Obama’s punt is not a big surprise as there simply are no good options for responding to North Korea. How do you calibrate a “proportional response” when not countering a military attack but one that targets freedom of expression? How do you penalize a dangerous pariah state that might strike out even more dangerously and has been nearly undeterred from far more dangerous behavior?