WASHINGTON — Two weeks after blaming North Korea for hacking into Sony Pictures, the Obama administration on Friday imposed new sanctions on the repressive government as part of what it described as a broader attempt to tackle threats to U.S. cybersecurity.
The White House warned that this was just the opening salvo in the U.S. response.
Under an executive order signed by President Barack Obama, the Treasury Department imposed financial measures on 10 North Korean officials and three government agencies. It is unclear how those sanctions might deter future cyberassaults, but officials said they expected financial institutions in other countries to take notice and to complicate North Korean business dealings.
“This attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment clearly crossed a threshold for us,” said one U.S. official, citing concerns about the sophistication and danger posed by cybersecurity threats in general. “You should see this as part of a broader effort to raise the baseline level of cybersecurity across the country and tackle these threats head-on.”
Officials said they thought the measures marked the first time the United States has imposed sanctions related to a cyberattack, although some sanctions in the past have been connected to the use of the Internet in human rights abuses.
The targets of the new sanctions include the Reconnaissance General Bureau, North Korea’s main intelligence agency, which is thought to have orchestrated major cyber-operations; the Korea Mining Development Trading Corp., which is North Korea’s main arms dealer, and the Korean Tangun Trading Corp., which is responsible for North Korea’s defense research and development.
None of the individuals sanctioned — operating out of Russia, Iran, Syria, China and Namibia — is thought to have been directly involved in the hack into Sony, officials said.
They earned their place on the new list as employees of the North Korean government or representatives of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea.
North Korea is already one of the most heavily sanctioned countries in the world, and the agencies and entities targeted Friday have been sanctioned previously. Still, analysts said the measures could inflict new financial pain on North Korea’s isolated military establishment.
In a statement, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said the new sanctions aim to hold North Korea responsible for “destructive and destabilizing conduct.”
Obama had pledged to respond “proportionally” to the intrusion into Sony’s network, an attack that not only exposed embarrassing corporate e-mails but wiped out computer data.
Obama said the U.S. is considering whether to put North Korea back on its list of state sponsors of terrorism, which could jeopardize aid to the country on a global scale. Beyond that, it’s unclear what additional penalties the U.S. has in its arsenal.
The new measures fall short of the response sought by some lawmakers, including a move to redesignate North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism.
Regardless of their impact, however, the sanctions serve as a sign of the administration’s confidence that North Korea was behind the attack against Sony.
Since the earliest news reports about possible North Korean responsibility in November, there has been skepticism among independent security researchers who say that it is notoriously difficult to determine the origins of cyberattacks and that sophisticated hackers can hide their footsteps or otherwise fool investigators.
Those doubts have not receded since the FBI officially laid blame on the reclusive nation Dec. 19, the same day that Obama threatened to retaliate for the attack and chastised Sony for canceling the planned release of the movie “The Interview.”
The comedy’s plot is built around the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Administration officials insist they remain confident that North Korea is behind the hack.
They note that they have access to intelligence that skeptics do not, some of it gathered by the nation’s top spy analysts.
“interview” strife
The new U.S. sanctions are in response to the hacking of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which the U.S. government has blamed on North Korea. While denying any role in the cyberattack, North Korea has expressed fury over the Sony movie “The Interview,” which depicts the fictional assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Sony called off the film’s release, then released it in limited theaters and online.
