Washington ( CNN ) -- From Hollywood to Washington , the outrage is spreading over Sony Pictures ' decision to cancel a movie release following a cyber attack and threats from a group of North Korea-backed hackers . Politicians urged Sony not to back down in the face of threats tied to the release of the controversial comedy `` The Interview , '' and then began lashing out when the studio made it clear it has no further plans to release the film , which depicts an assassination plot against North Korean leader Kim Jong Un . Republican Rep. Ed Royce , chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee , slammed Sony 's decision Thursday as a `` capitulation '' to the North Korean dictator and called for the U.S. to rally the international community and severely sanction North Korea for carrying out what he called a `` cyber war . '' FBI investigators tracked the hackers who broke into Sony 's servers , published private information and threatened moviegoers back to the North Korean regime , U.S. law enforcement officials told CNN on Wednesday . The North Korean regime slammed the movie this summer as `` terrorism and a war action . '' And despite the hackers ' threat to attack movie theaters , the Department of Homeland Security has said `` there is no credible intelligence '' supporting an active plot against movie theaters . And President Barack Obama urged people to `` go to the movies . '' `` Once you capitulate to one dictator , does that mean that the next dictator or the next terrorist that says you 're not going to make a comedy about -- or a film at all about ISIS , '' Royce said . `` All of us in public life have a responsibility right now to speak out and to say , 'No , Sony , you did the wrong thing ' and to say to Hollywood , come behind -- the other studios should come behind Sony and offer their support . '' Royce said the U.S. should get international support to sanction North Korea and cut off its access to financial institutions . Watch out world : North Korea deep into cyber warfare , defector says . More broadly , Royce said Sony 's decision to `` self-censor '' undercuts U.S. efforts to promote freedom throughout the world , including in the hermit kingdom . `` That 's what 's most worrisome about this decision , '' Royce said . Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney also urged Sony , `` do n't cave , fight '' in a tweet on Wednesday . Sen. John McCain , the incoming chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee , called Sony 's decision `` profoundly troubling '' in a statement . `` That decision sets a troubling precedent that will only empower and embolden bad actors to use cyber as an offensive weapon even more aggressively in the future , '' McCain said in a statement Thursday . But McCain , the 2008 Republican presidential nominee , pinned the Sony debacle on the Obama administration for failing to `` satisfactorily address '' cyber warfare . McCain pointed to Iranian , Russian and Chinese attacks on government and private financial sectors and said the Obama administration has failed to `` deter our adversaries . '' But Congress has also failed to tackle cybersecurity , failing to pass legislation before the end of the 113th Congress that would have beefed up public-private sector partnerships to fend off cyber attacks , which are on the rise . And Congress needs to tackle that type of comprehensive legislation , McCain said in the statement . Rep. Adam Kinzinger , a Republican and Air Force veteran , did n't pull any punches as he linked the Sony decision to recent events . And Rep. Steve Israel , a top-ranking Democrat , called on Sony Pictures to release `` The Interview '' on DVD and tweeted `` we should not let a pathological regime in N. Korea intimidate us . '' He added that he would be the first online to see the movie . .
Rep. Ed Royce called the decision a `` capitulation '' and called for sanctions to punish North Korea for a `` cyber war '' Mitt Romney also tweeted , urging Sony `` do n't cave , fight '' Sen. John McCain said Sony 's decision sets a `` troubling precedent , '' but ultimately blamed Obama . Reps. Adam Kinzinger and Steve Israel also sounded off on Twitter .