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Android app reported to have infected 20,000 devices so far, promising pirated download while stealing bank account details. Controversial film The Interview has earned $18m so far from online sales and cinema viewings in the US, but some people in South Korea trying to download a pirated version are catching a nasty dose of mobile malware instead. The comedy, which satirises the North Korean regime of Kim Jong-un and sparked the recent cyberattack on studio Sony Pictures, is understandably eliciting plenty of interest in South Korea. See the rest of the Interview story here.

It was extremely encouraging to see the United States and Sony eventually stand up to the cyberbullying of the North Koreans by allowing the movie "The Interview" to be released despite threats of retaliation. Freedom of speech and freedom of expression are hallmarks of American life, and we must jealously guard these values from both internal and external threats. In fact, all of the freedoms guaranteed to American citizens by our Constitution must be steadfastly preserved, or they will be eroded. Vigilance and courage are necessary every day if we are to remain a free society. I am proud of...

US cybersecurity experts say they have solid evidence that a former employee helped hack Sony Pictures Entertainment’s computer system — and that it was not masterminded by North Korean cyberterrorists. One leading cybersecurity firm, Norse Corp., said Monday it has narrowed its list of suspects to a group of six people — including at least one Sony veteran with the necessary technical background to carry out the attack, according to reports. The investigation of the Sony hacking by the private companies stands in stark contrast to the finding of the FBI, which said Dec. 19 its probe traced the hacking...

In July of 1870, King Wilhelm sent Foreign Minister Bismarck an account of his meeting with a French envoy who had demanded that the king renounce any Hohenzollern claim to the Spanish throne. Bismarck edited the report to make it appear the Frenchman had insulted the king, and that Wilhelm rudely dismissed him. The Ems Telegram precipitated the Franco-Prussian war Bismarck wanted. Words matter. And if a picture is worth a thousand words, how much greater impact can a motion picture have? We are finding out. Egypt has banned "Exodus: Gods and Kings," the $140 million 20th Century Fox biblical...

Foreign Policy article examines number of times state department referred to "unacceptable" behavior this year; Israel ranked between North Korea and Pakistan. The US State Department described Israeli actions as "unacceptable" 87 times in 2014, with only three countries being more "unacceptable," according to a Foreign Policy article published last week. Journalist Micah Zenko searched the State Department's website for usage of the term, and his "top ten" list shows Israel sandwiched right between North Korea and Pakistan. Zenko pointed that the US officials regularly use the phrase "but then do very little in response to prevent or deter those...

First it was, with "absolute certainly", North Korea. Then, out of the blue, an even more ridiculous theory emerged about the origin of the Sony hackers: Russia. Now, we finally get the truth, and as it turns out it was neither of the abovementioned sovereign actors who had nothing better to do than to hack movie scripts and racist emails: it was Sony's own disgruntled worker who was the source of the hack. According to Politico, FBI agents investigating the Sony Pictures hack were briefed Monday by a security firm that says its research points to laid-off Sony staff,...

Sony Pictures is triumphant today because their release of the North Korea-inspired comedy The Interview by Seth Rogen and James Franco had an estimated sales of $15 million over the weekend from largely online sales. The movie was schedule to be released in about 3,000 theaters, but because of “terror” threats, it was released in a limited number of theaters and online.The revenue is about $5,000 per canceled theater, or about 300 people per theatre. Kind of light traffic for a new release with a great deal of publicity surrounding it. Count it another triumph however for a renegade state...

Christians say their faith has been singled out because authorities are trying to curb its growth. BEIJING — Two days before Christmas, members of a rural Christian congregation in the eastern city of Wenzhou welded some pieces of metal into a cross and hoisted it onto the top of their worship hall to replace one that was forcibly removed in October. Within an hour, township officials and uniformed men barged onto the church ground and tore down the cross. "They keep a very close watch on us, and there is nothing we can do," said a church official, who spoke...

Very quietly and under the radar, authorities in China have cracked down on Christmas celebrations in China, deeming them "Western spiritual pollution." As CNMNews reports, for several years, a virtual rush to convert to Christianity has been underway in China, both in its Protestant and Catholic versions. The Department of Education this year issued a directive to limit Christianity’s appeal to young people, banning Christmas events and celebrations in schools and kindergartens, deemed “kitsch” and “un-Chinese”. The crackdown has also been spreading to universities and colleges nationwide. The result is nowhere more evident than in Google's traffic in China...  As...

To some Chinese, The Interview is ‘the greatest film in history’ Published: 8:23 AM, December 27, 2014 BEIJING — Even before Americans began flocking to theaters on Christmas Eve to see The Interview — Sony Pictures’ comedy about a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) plot to kill the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un — Chinese film fans by the thousands were downloading mostly pirated versions of the movie on domestic video-sharing websites. By midday yesterday (Dec 27), more than 300,000 people had seen the film, and the reviews, by and large, were favorable. “Perfect, the greatest film in history, all...

Russia appears striving to boost the demand for its language in North Korea, amid signs that the Cold War allies try to build up strong bilateral relations. Russia's Maritime Province of Siberia donated as many as 1,400 Russian books to North Korea, the Russian news agency Interfax said Wednesday. The books vary on the subjects from Russian history, literature, culture, to language. It reported that the state government delegated the donation project to "Russkiy Mir," an orthodox cultural foundation established by Russia's president Vladimir Putin in 2007 as a vehicle for exercising soft power abroad. The foundation delivered the books...

Linguists identified foreign phrasing in about 2,000 words from hacker emails and posts that may have been penned by a Russian native speaker. Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Linguists identified foreign phrasing in about 2,000 words from hacker emails and posts that may have been penned by a Russian native speaker. What if it wasn’t North Korea after all? In the controversy over the Sony hacking, government officials have accused the sequestered communist country of hacking Sony, but security analysts argue Russian hackers may be the culprit. Writing samples from hackers claiming responsibility for leaking finance reports and emails by Sony employees suggest...

<p>North Korea on Saturday compared President Obama to a “monkey in a tropical forest” as it blamed the administration for disrupting its Internet access amid a hacking dispute related to the movie “The Interview.”</p> <p>The North Korean government has been fiercely critical of the film, a comedy involving a plot to assassinate its leader Kim Jong Un, but has denied responsibility for a recent cyberattack on Sony Pictures.</p>

N Korea Race-Hate Outburst At Obama 27 DECEMBER 2014 North Korea has hurled racial slurs at President Barack Obama as the communist state blamed the US for shutting down its internet amid the Sony hacking row. The North's powerful National Defence Commission said Mr Obama was behind the release of Sony Pictures' film The Interview and called him a "monkey inhabiting a tropical forest". North Korea has denied being involved in the crippling cyber-attack on Sony Pictures, but expressed fury over the comedy depicting an assassination of its leader Kim Jong Un. After Sony initially called off the release in...

N. Korea Calls Obama 'Monkey' in Hacking Row SEOUL, South Korea — Dec 26, 2014 By HYUNG-JIN KIM North Korea called President Barack Obama "a monkey" and blamed the U.S. on Saturday for shutting down its Internet amid the hacking row over the comedy "The Interview." North Korea has denied involvement in a crippling cyberattack on Sony Pictures but has expressed fury over the comedy depicting an assassination of its leader Kim Jong Un. Sony Pictures initially called off the release citing threats of terror attacks against U.S. movie theaters. Obama criticized Sony's decision, and the movie has opened this...

North Korea called President Barack Obama “a monkey” and blamed the U.S. on Saturday for shutting down its Internet amid the hacking row over the comedy “The Interview.” North Korea has denied involvement in a crippling cyberattack on Sony Pictures but has expressed fury over the comedy depicting an assassination of its leader Kim Jong Un. […] “Obama always goes reckless in words and deeds like a monkey in a tropical forest,” an unidentified spokesman at the commission’s Policy Department said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. It wasn’t the first time North Korea has...

A number of private security researchers are increasingly voicing doubts that the hack of Sony‘s computer systems was the work of North Korea. President Obama and the F.B.I. last week accused North Korea of targeting Sony and pledged a “proportional response” just hours before North Korea’s Internet went dark without explanation. But security researchers remain skeptical, with some even likening the government’s claims to those of the Bush administration in the build-up to the Iraq war. Fueling their suspicions is the fact that the government based its findings, in large part, on evidence that it will not release, citing the...

North Korea may be facing explosive hacking accusations, but analysts are questioning how an isolated, impoverished country with limited Internet access could wage cyber sabotage -- and many experts believe China plays a role. The US has accused Pyongyang of hacking Sony Pictures, which was intimidated into initially cancelling the comedy film "The Interview" that mocks North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, before deciding to release it online and in selected US cinemas on Christmas Day. While much of the focus has been on the so-called cyber warfare between Washington and Pyongyang -- especially after North Korea's Internet temporarily went down...

More and more North Koreans are becoming aware of the North Korea-mocking movie “The Interview,” and the government is doing everything to block it from getting smuggled in to the country. According to Free North Korea Radio, an online radio network made by North Korean defectors, demand for “The Interview” has been shooting up among North Koreans. It says people are willing to pay almost $50 a copy of the movie, which is 10X higher than what a regular South Korean TV show’s DVD would cost in the black market. In response, North Korea’s State Security Department and The Ministry...

he FBI last week announced that they had discovered conclusive evidence proving the North Korean government was behind the Sony hack President Obama then attacked the country for their behavior during a news conference, and informed them that the United States would retaliate Now, the findings of the FBI are being called into question by many of the cybersecurity industry's leading experts What's more, after an independent investigation, Norse has determined that they believe a woman named 'Lena' is responsible for the hack Almost every expert stated that they believe the hack had to have been an inside job