Sony is reeling from the effects of its recent massive breach, in which hackers were able to penetrate the company's systems at a deep level -- and make Hollywood insiders blush by releasing troves of internal data and private emails.

After criminals employed by the North Korean government hacked a private U.S. corporation, inflicting millions of dollars in damages and embarrassing the company, the White House is now forced to consider what retaliatory measures to take.

In a press conference last week, President Obama said he will respond “proportionally” to the cyber attacks, but as of yet has not announced any specifics. Nevertheless, he didn’t need to announce any specifics for the regime in North Korean to take offense at the mere suggestion it was somehow responsible.

North Korea’s access to the Internet has been hit with outages and is offline today, according to a network-monitoring company, days after the U.S. government accused the country of hacking into Sony Corp. (6758)’s files.

North Korea, which has four official networks connecting the country to the Internet -- all of which route through China -- began experiencing intermittent problems yesterday and today went completely black, according to Doug Madory, director of Internet analysis at Dyn Research in Hanover, New Hampshire.

The White House on Saturday said it was “pleased” that Sony is looking at ways to distribute the movie “The Interview,” after company executives cancelled cinema showings in the wake of a massive and damaging cyberattack.

"We are pleased to hear that Sony is actively working to distribute the film,” said Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz. “People should be able to decide for themselves whether or not they would like to see it."

He also said the White House never discussed distribution of the movie with Sony prior to the company's decision Friday to cancel the release.

The Obama administration is seeking assistance from China as U.S. officials craft President Barack Obama’s promised response to North Korea’s cyberattack on Sony Pictures, senior administration officials said Saturday.

Mr. Obama vowed on Friday to retaliate against Pyongyang for the hacking and is expected to receive recommendations from aides in coming days while on vacation in Hawaii.

In recent days, U.S. officials have been communicating with Chinese officials in attempt to get Beijing to intervene.

“We have d

North Korea said U.S. accusations that it was involved in a cyberattack on Sony Pictures were "groundless slander" and demanded a joint investigation with the U.S. into the incident.
An unnamed spokesman of the North's foreign ministry said there would be "grave consequences" if Washington refused to agree to the joint probe and continued to accuse Pyongyang, the official KCNA news agency reported Saturday.

North Korea is proposing a joint investigation with the U.S. to look into the massive cyberattack against Sony Pictures Entertainment.

On Saturday, a spokesman for North Korea's Foreign Ministry in Pyongyang promised "grave consequences" if the U.S. does not agree to a joint investigation.

"The U.S. should bear in mind that it will face serious consequences in case it rejects our proposal for joint investigation and presses for what it called countermeasures while finding fault" with North Korea, the spo

President Obama said on Friday that the United States “will respond proportionally” against North Korea for its destructive cyberattacks on Sony Pictures, but he criticized the Hollywood studio for giving in to intimidation when it withdrew “The Interview,” the satirical movie that provoked the attacks, before it opened.

As it begins to dawn on everyone in Hollywood the reality that Sony Pictures was the victim of a cyberterrorist act perpetrated by a hostile foreign nation on American soil, questions will be asked about how and why it happened, ending with Sony cancelling the theatrical release of the satirical comedy The Interview because of its depiction of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.

Now that U.S. intelligence officials believe that North Korea was behind the cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment, the discussion has finally moved away from e-mails about Angelina Jolie to the real story, which is far more troubling. One of the nastiest regimes in the world effectively threatened to launch terrorist attacks in the United States if an artistic work was shown publicly. And, stunningly, almost everyone involved has caved.