Re: Bigger Brother keeping an eye on Big Brother
Historically there's a clear divide between spying ("everybody does it") and sabotage.
Spying involves only small and very careful changes to a target system to compromise its security while leaving its primary function unaffected. Thereafter, access is read-only. Anything that causes the target's primary function to be damaged draws attention to the spying, thereby defeating its purpose, as well as crossing the line into sabotage.
Sabotage uses compromised security to damage or destroy a compromised system's primary function. It's as much a hostile act as using explosive devices on another state's territory. Unlike spying, it is not tacitly accepted as something that everybody does, other than during a war.
On this basis, what the USA (claims it) did to NK's systems is normal peacetime behaviour for a nation state. What NK (allegedly) did to Sony is not.
[edit] Although it occurs to me that the USA and NK are not actually at peace ... the Korean war ended in a truce but no peace treaty has ever been signed.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
