North Korea Denies Participating In Sony Hack, But Condones "Righteous Deed"

North Korea isn't the least bit amused about Sony's upcoming comedy flick "The Interview" in which actors James Franco and Seth Rogen participate in a fictional plot to assassinate its leader, Kim Jong-un. Even though it disapproves of the movie, North Korea is denying any and all involvement in a recent hack of Sony Pictures Entertainment that resulted in the theft and release of various data, including social security numbers belonging to actors.

The massive ransomware attack on Sony is said to be unprecedented in nature due to the use of undetectable malware. Fallout from the attack involves 100 terabytes of stolen data including full movies that have since been leaked to torrent sites, confidential employee records, and internal memos showing how Sony goes about its business.

Though North Korea is denying involvement, it's not being shy about the fact it's glad the deed was done, even if by another party.

"The hacking into the Sony Pictures might be a righteous deed of the supporters and sympathizers with the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea)," KCNA, North Korea's state-run news agency, said in a statement. "The hacking is so fatal that all the systems of the company have been paralyzed, causing the overall suspension of the work and supposedly a huge ensuing loss."

KCNA went on to call accusations of its involvement a "wild rumor," adding that it doesn't know the whereabouts of Sony's systems, nor could it conduct a cyberattack on "a country far across the ocean."

Whether or not North Korea is involved, KCNA's explanation is rather weak. There's also enough evidence to point to North Korea as a suspect. According to CNN Money, there are certain similarities in the attack on the Sony and a separate cyber attack against South Korea. In both cases, the attacks were written in Korean, which is not all that common in cyber crimes.