More and more security experts are beginning to doubt North Korea's role in the hack of Sony Pictures, as some are beginning to suspect a Sony insider played a key role.
Among these experts is Kurt Stammberger, senior vice president of cyber security company Norse, who told CBS News in interview his thoughts on who is responsible for the incident. Norse has been investigating the hack, but it is not directly involved in the case.
"Sony was not just hacked, this is a company that has essentially been nuked from the inside," Stammberger said.
The interview follows a week after the FBI announced its conclusion that its investigators have found the North Korean government to be responsible for the hack, which took place in late November and resulted in the release of sensitive employee information and the temporary cancellation of "The Interview," a comedy film about two reporters tasked with assassinating North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, PC Magazine reported. A group going by the name the Guardians of Peace (GOP) has since claimed credit for the hack, threatening last week to carry out 9/11-style attacks of the U.S., resulting in several theater chains refusing to premiere the film.
North Korea has denied that it was involved in the hacking.
Stammberger said that Norse believes the Sony insider is a woman calling herself "Lena," a former employee who claims to be connected to the GOP and worked for Sony in Los Angeles for 10 years before leaving the company this past May, CBS News reported.
"This woman was in precisely the right position and had the deep technical background she would need to locate the specific servers that were compromised," Stammberger said, adding that while North Korea has played a role in the hacking, "when we run all those leads to ground they turn out to be decoys or red herrings."
Others who doubt North Korea's involvement in the Sony hack include Marc Rogers, head of security at Defcon, who wrote a piece on the Daily Beast about the possibility of a Sony insider being involved, and Hector Xavier Monsegur, or Sabu, former Lulzsec leader and informant for the FBI, PC Magazine reported.
Sony decided earlier this week to give people a chance to see "The Interview" by releasing the movie online through several distributors for $5.99.
