China says reports it helped cut off North Korea’s Internet ‘irresponsible’

BEIJING (Reuters) – Reports that China was involved in cutting off North Korea’s Internet are “irresponsible”, China’s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday. Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying made the remarks at a daily news briefing.

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South Korea official says cannot rule out North’s hand in hack of nuclear operator

By Meeyoung Cho SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea has not ruled out the involvement of North Korea in a cyberattack on the country’s nuclear power plant operator and has requested the United States to help in investigations, an official involved in the proceedings said on Tuesday. Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co Ltd (KHNP), which runs South Korea’s 23 nuclear power reactors, said on Monday that its computer systems had been hacked but only non-critical data had been stolen. Operations were not at risk, it said

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Internet outage seen in North Korea amid U.S. hacking dispute

By Lesley Wroughton and Megha Rajagopalan WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) – North Korea, at the center of a confrontation with the United States over the hacking of Sony pictures, itself experienced Internet outages on Monday, a U.S. company that monitors Internet infrastructure said. New Hampshire-based Dyn Research said the reason for the disruptions was not known but could range from technological glitches to a hacking attack.

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Sony hack puts Japan’s Abe in bind over North Korea abductee talks

By Linda Sieg TOKYO (Reuters) – U.S. accusations that North Korea was behind the cyberattack on Sony Pictures could force Japan to choose between backing its ally Washington and keeping talks on track with Pyongyang about Japanese citizens abducted decades ago. Washington is weighing how to punish North Korea after the FBI concluded Pyongyang was responsible, including possibly returning North Korea to the U.S.

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U.S. says consulting UK, Australia, New Zealand on North Korea hack response

By Julia Edwards Honolulu (Reuters) – The Obama administration is consulting the UK, Australia and New Zealand, among other countries in hopes of organizing an international response to the cyberattack on Sony Pictures that it has pinned on North Korea, an administration official told Reuters on Saturday. The U.S

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BlackBerry closes acquisition of Germany’s Secusmart

TORONTO (Reuters) – BlackBerry Ltd said Friday it has completed its acquisition of Secusmart, a privately held firm that specializes in voice and data encryption. Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry agreed to buy the German maker of encryption and anti-eavesdropping services in July, in a move to burnish its credentials with highly security-conscious clients like government ‎agencies.

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All calm amid political storm at ‘Interview’ premiere

By Piya Sinha-Roy Los Angeles (Reuters) – All was calm on Thursday at the Los Angeles premiere of Sony Pictures' parody film “The Interview”, which had been in the spotlight for sparking tension with North Korea and potentially prompting a major cyber hack on the company. Stars Seth Rogen and James Franco posed on a small red carpet restricted to photographers as Sony reined in media access after the film made headlines following a devastating security breach that leaked films, data and emails

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