If they did it on purpose it's even sillier. They may think that it would be cool to say they "got hacked by a state" especially if it's related to an upcoming movie about it, but to me it seems like amateur hour at Sony if they got hacked by North Korea, a country not exactly known for its advanced technology and high computer usage.
North Korea as a country might be behind the technological curve, but several reports indicate the the North Korean Army cyber warfare division is pretty well funded and advanced. There is a huge divide between the day to day realities of the average NK citizen and the realities of the upper echelons.
Who makes up the cyber-warfare division? If I traveled in time back to 1850 with a billion dollars worth of gold bullion, I couldn't hire a single black hat with it. So a few kids of the party elite get to go to nice schools abroad - where are the rest coming from?
Or does DPRK have a shit-hot education system in spite of literally other thing about the country being godawful and totally backwards? If so it's the first I've heard that.
If you think about it, DPRK can afford to send hacker-to-be's to top engineering programs in Europe and the United States, and then bring them back to NK as blackhat hackers.
The current leader went to boarding school in europe - and enjoyed the privileges awarded in that social circle. Corruption doesn't always make logical sense, nor is it limited by morality!
A very simple idea. Find bright kids. Send them overseas to the US primary education system. Their parents stay behind in NK and are bound to the society in NK - the kids need to perform well in school in order for the government to keep giving the parents a reasonable life.
Upon graduation from primary and secondary school in say, California, the kids enroll and try as hard as they can to get into Stanford. Graduate from the CS department, get a phd doing original work in encryption algorithms, and then when they are adults, they return to NK knowing that their parents had a good life b/c of their hard work.
Now you get some nice black hat hackers!
Basically this is how Kim Jong Il created a new young dictator willing to threaten nuclear war. I don't doubt their cyberwarfare division is run in a similar way.
North Korea is nothing like the 1850s. The elites have access to all the technology you and I have, as well as all the latest textbooks and scientific publications, mainly via imports from China. Even people outside the power structure are exposed to computers in school and many can buy computers and radios on the black market.
North Korea, like South Korea and many of its neighbors a have tradition of putting a lot of weight on basic education and kids there compete for top grades and positions in special advanced schools.
As to the cyber warfare divisions. According to reports, kids as young as 12 who show aptitude for mathematics are selected for rigorous advanced computer schools. Those that pass go on to study computer science at special universities. The top graduates each year then get selected for a 5 year intense military training course, which includes studies in Russia or China. Getting selected for the cyber warfare unit is apparently one of the most prestigious military postings in NK and comes with lots of perks, so the competition to get in is fierce.
Apparently North Korea has fairly substantial IT (and animation) outsourcing businesses: this paywalled A¢M article http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2012/8/153816-inside-the-hermi... claims 10,000 workers in IT outsourcing. The great majority of the population may be living as peasants, but that's not the case universally.
Doubtful. Several still-in-theater or unreleased movies are apparently up on torrent sites from this hack. I don't think that they would do this just to promote another film...
