Sony hack a US 'national security matter'

White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters in Washington on Thursday that the attack on Sony pictures, which has been blamed on North Korea, amounted to "destructive activity with malicious intent."

He also said that President Barack Obama regarded the attack as a "serious national security matter" and that his administration was considering an "appropriate response."

"That is something that's being investigated, and the appropriate response is something that is being carefully considered by members of the president's national security team," Earnest said.

North Korean connection not confirmed

While he declined to confirm that North Korea was behind the attack, he said the investigation into who was to blame was "progressing."

The cyber attackers who hacked into Sony Pictures' computers said they were outraged by a film that the company was planning to release on December 25, a comedy poking fun at North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The film ends with the North Korean leader being killed.

The attack allowed the hackers to gain access to the personal data of Sony Pictures' employees, internal emails and even unreleased films, which they made available on the Internet.

Threat to cinemas

The hackers then escalated the attack by threatening attacks on any cinemas that screened the film "The Interview." After major distributors announced that they would not show the film, Sony Pictures announced on Wednesday that it was cancelling its release, a move that it has been widely criticized for.

Among the strongest critics was the Republican US senator and former presidential candidate, John McCain.

"By effectively yielding to aggressive acts of cyber-terrorism by North Korea, that is a troubling precedent that will only empower and embolden bad actors to use cyber as an offensive weapon even more aggressively in the future," McCain said.

The AFP news agency, though, quoted an unnamed Sony Pictures official who said the Hollywood studio had no choice but to cancel the release.

"This was a terrorist act, and you don't take that lightly," the source said. "This is much bigger than us… it's a whole new world, now warfare is on the cyber level.

North Korea has denied responsibility for the attack.

pfd/jm (AFP, Reuters, AP)