While still unofficial, it’s believed that Sony Pictures, along with security firm Mandiant, will later today announce North Korea as the hacking culprit. Nearly 10 days ago, Sony Pictures Culver City campus was the target of a brutal hacking incident which took down the studio’s computers and networks. Since that time, the Hollywood studio has made headway with getting their systems up and running though they’ve yet to fully get everything fixed. Beyond crippling their network structure, #GOP, the group which has taken responsibility for the hack, is believed to be the culprit of releasing 5 Sony Pictures films on file-sharing websites, including Fury which is still in theaters. The other four titles have yet to be released.

More details after the jump.

Even during the early days of the hack, many wondered out loud if the incident had something to do with The Interview, the latest Seth Rogan and James Franco film. In the comedy that’s set to be released on December 25th, Rogan and Franco plot to assassinate the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un. As you can imagine, North Korea wasn’t too happy about the film and released their usual line about the US propaganda machine and how the film is in line with US military efforts and is an act of war.

Since that time, more concrete evidence has been revealed to link the hack to North Korea. Most notably, many of the codes which were used to hack Sony Pictures were the same ones that were used when North Korea hacked South Korean broadcasters and banks. Further linking the two together, #GOP, the group claiming responsibility has pronounced regional security and human rights violations against Sony Pictures which are eerily close to claims from North Korea.

Sony Pictures for its part has been fairly mum. When reached about the matter, they responded with:

 The investigation continues into this very sophisticated cyber attack. 

Discuss:

Do you believe North Korea was behind the attack?