Politico quotes Cyber Statecraft Initiative Director Jason Healey on how the United States is likely to respond to the recent North Korean hack on Sony:
“We’re not going to risk going to war with the North Koreans on this, and nor should we,” said Atlantic Council’s Jay Healey, a former White House cybersecurity official. “The president is going to want this to go away, keep the focus on Cuba, get ready to go on vacation.”
The Obama family was set to depart for Hawaii in the evening.
The FBI announcement comes seven months to the day after Attorney General Eric Holder announced the U.S. was indicting five Chinese military officials for allegedly hacking into American businesses and stealing intellectual property — but Friday’s announcement was very different in tone, not coming in the form of a criminal indictment.
Healey called Friday’s move unprecedented, and possibly the harbinger for a new direction for the U.S. in cyberspace.
“It took us 10 years, literally 10 years, on Chinese espionage to say anything about it. We’ve still never said anything about Iran, so being able to turn this around, finally, hopefully we’re taking out the idea you can never get attribution and taking that off the table and focusing on the real issue: Which is what do you do about it when you know or you’re pretty sure you know?” Healey said.