U.S. suspects North Korea had help attacking Sony Pictures: source

BY MARK HOSENBALL AND JIM FINKLE
WASHINGTON/BOSTON Mon Dec 29, 2014 4:51pm EST

(Reuters) - U.S. investigators believe that North Korea likely hired hackers from outside the country to help with last month's massive cyberattack against Sony Pictures, an official close to the investigation said on Monday.

As North Korea lacks the capability to conduct some elements of the sophisticated campaign by itself, U.S. investigators are looking at the possibility that Pyongyang "contracted out" some of the cyber work, according to the official, who was not authorized to speak on the record about the investigation.

The attack on Sony Pictures is regarded to be the most destructive ever against a company on U.S. soil because the hackers not only stole huge quantities of data, but also wiped hard drives and brought down much of the studio's network for more than a week.

While U.S. officials investigate whether North Korea enlisted help from outside contractors, the FBI stood by its previous statement that Pyongyang was the prime author of the attack against the Sony Corp unit.

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