In 2014, Quentin Tarantino sued Gawker for publishing a link to a leaked pre-release screener of his movie "The Hateful Eight." The ensuing court-case revealed that the screeners Tarantino's company had released had some forensic "traitor tracing" features to enable them to track down the identities of people who leaked copies. Read the rest

In what looks to many in the information security community like a bizarre face-saving gesture with little basis in reality, the Obama administration today announced new sanctions on 10 senior North Korean officials and several organizations. Read the rest

The FBI issued a press release on December 19 stating it has "enough information to conclude that the North Korean government is responsible" for the Sony Pictures hack. But it won't say much about how it came to that conclusion, citing a "need to protect sensitive sources and methods."

The FBI is probably wrong, says Marc Rogers, the director of security operations for DEF CON and a security researcher for a mobile security company. The hack is more likely to be the work of a "disgruntled employee," not North Korean hackers, he writes in The Daily Beast.

Rogers lays out his case pretty convincingly, knocking over the FBI's flimsy arguments one at a time. He concludes:

You don’t need to be a conspiracy theorist to see that blaming North Korea is quite convenient for the FBI and the current U.S. administration. It’s the perfect excuse to push through whatever new, strong, cyber-laws they feel are appropriate, safe in the knowledge that an outraged public is fairly likely to support them.

North Korea did not hack Sony, says security researcher Read the rest