North Korea Internet Access Is ‘Totally Down,’ Is The US Government Responsible After Sony Hack?

North Korea experienced major internet outages on Monday and at one point internet access was "totally down." Is the US government responsible for North Korea's internet outages after the Sony hack?

According to The Guardian, computer expert Doug Madory, who is the director of internet analysis at Dyn Research, said North Korea's online access is "totally down" after outages became progressively worse throughout the weekend and into Monday.

"They have left the global internet and they are gone until they come back," he said.

The White House and the State Department declined to say whether the US government was responsible, according to the Guardian.

However, these outages come just days after President Barack Obama promised a proportional response to the hacks against Sony, CNBC reports.

President Obama described the Sony hacks as an expensive act of "cyber vandalism" and blamed them on North Korea. Though Obama did not say how the US might respond, the US government regards its offensive cyber operations as highly classified.

"We aren't going to discuss, you know, publicly operational details about the possible response options or comment on those kind of reports in any way except to say that as we implement our responses, some will be seen, some may not be seen," State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said.

In a Friday media conference, Obama promised a response "at a place and time and manner that we choose," and declined to rule out military force or economic penalties.

Madory said a possible explanation for the internet problems was that a router suffered a software glitch, though a cyber-attack involving North Korea's internet service was also a possibility.

Routing instabilities are not uncommon but this particular outage has gone on for hours and was getting worse instead of better, Madory added.

"This doesn't fit that profile," of an ordinary routing problem, he explained. "This shows something getting progressively worse over time."

He added, "usually there are isolated blips, not continuous connectivity problems. I wouldn't be surprised if they are absorbing some sort of attack presently."

"They're pretty stable networks normally," he told Re/code. "In the last 24 hours or so, the networks in North Korea are under some kind of duress, but I can't tell you exactly what's causing it."

When asked for comment, a White House National Security Council spokesperson told CNBC that "we don't have any new announcements on North Korea today."

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sony hack
North Korea
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