Sure , North Korea 's government despises the movie `` The Interview . '' But when its propagandists say it did not hack Sony Pictures before the original release date of the flick that satirizes dictator Kim Jong-un , they might just be telling the truth . Some U.S. cyber experts say the evidence the FBI has presented to attempt to incriminate hackers working for the communist regime is not enough to pin the blame on Pyongyang . `` It 's clear to us , based on both forensic and other evidence we 've collected , that unequivocally they are not responsible for orchestrating or initiating the attack on Sony , '' said Sam Glines , who runs the cybersecurity company Norse . The FBI has said that code in the malware used by a group called `` Guardians of Peace '' ( GoP ) in the attack on Sony is similar to code used by North Korea in other attacks . But that code was leaked a long time ago , experts say . Any hacker anywhere in the world could have used it . There is a group in the Kim regime that is responsible for cyber warfare , but independent IT security researcher Scott Borg does n't believe North Korea was capable of the Sony hack . `` It 's beyond the skill level that we have been able to observe , '' he said . CNN has reached out to the FBI for comment on the doubts about North Korea 's involvement in the Sony hack , but has not heard back . Earlier this month , U.S. officials told CNN on condition of anonymity that the National Security Agency and FBI were able to trace the attack back to North Korea . A whodunit . So , North Korea might not have done it . But if not , who did ? Sony may be a bur in Pyongyang 's fur for the movie , in which an actor playing Kim is confronted by the protagonist with North Korea 's human rights record . In the end , they do bloody battle . But Sony has other enemies -- both internal and external . One example could be the group that says it launched a cyberattack on Christmas Day against Sony 's PlayStation Network . The Lizard Squad has claimed responsibility for knocking PSN gamers offline and said it had also done the same with Microsoft 's Xbox . In the summer , it also smacked game networks Battle.net , Eve Online and League of Legends . But after Sony Online Entertainment acknowledged large-scale attacks on Twitter this summer , the Lizards appear to have gotten particularly nasty with them . Bomb threat . A Tweet sent from an account in the hackers ' name alleged there was a bomb on board a plane carrying Sony Online Entertainment president , John Smedley . The plane diverted . The Lizards also claimed responsibility for a PlayStation Network outage early this month , just days after the big Sony Pictures hack that plundered a record-worthy 100 terabytes of data . It included movies , company secrets , employee data , embarrassing internal emails and Social Security numbers of celebrities . Then there are Sony 's internal rubs : Security employees have been hit by layoffs . A disgruntled former longtime employee code-named `` Lena '' has ties to GoP , Glines said . And she had high access to company secrets and user data . There 's a possibility these were n't hacked away from Sony but given away instead . `` Lena '' was probably mad about layoffs , Glines said , but she may have also commiserated with people who pirated Sony movies and other content `` and how they had been prosecuted in the U.S. and other countries . '' CNN asked Sony about Glines ' account on `` Lena '' but has received no reply . Deja vu . There are myriad other possibilities . There are hackers for hire . Or -- like that leaked North Korean code -- lots of malware is available through the Internet . Cyberattackers can augment off-the-shelf viruses with customized components . Also , Sony is a broad target that plenty of hackers have taken shots at in the past . In October 2012 , the hacker group `` The Three Musketeers '' released a security key that allowed PS3 users to run pirated games . And in April 2011 , Sony 's PlayStation Network was shut down for nearly a month when hackers stole the personal information of an estimated 77 million people . A 19-year-old Briton , allegedly a member of a hacking group called LulzSec , was arrested over that one . That same year , in June , hackers released 150,000 Sony Pictures records , including user names and passwords , and claimed to have compromised the private information of more than 1 million people . This month 's hack was a reprise of that one for critics and for some employees planning to sue the company for failing to protect their privacy .
` ` Unequivocally , they are not responsible , '' a cybersecurity expert says about North Korea . Data in the PlayStation console may have originated in North Korea but disappeared a long time ago . Hackers have often taken aim at Sony . In 2012 , hackers stole the data of an estimated 77 million people .