FBI confirms North Korea's involvement in Sony hack as attackers talk ceasefire

After days of unconfirmed media reports, the Federal Bureau of Investigation just officially stated it believes that North Korea was indeed involved with a gigantic Sony hack that saw personal information, unreleased movies and thousands of emails leaked online. According to a release issued by the Bureau, an investigation revealed "significant overlap" between the means of attack against Sony and previous hacks conducted by the North Korean government. Earlier reports also suggested that the FBI would identify China as a potential participant (either directly or through use of its network infrastructure) in the attack, but no mention of the country was made in this first announcement.

"North Korea's actions were intended to inflict significant harm on a U.S. business and suppress the right of American citizens to express themselves," the Bureau's statement reads.

The FBI went on to say that a deep technical analysis of the "destructive malware" used in the attacks was critical in tying North Korea to the hack. There were apparently no shortage of "similarities in specific lines of code, encryption algorithms, data deletion methods, and compromised networks" to malware used in the past by North Korean agents.

Even though federal authorities now have a target in its crosshairs, Sony still seems more than willing to play by the hackers' rules. Late last night, the Guardians of Peace (or a party claiming to be the Guardians) issued another message to Sony Pictures execs promising that no new leaks would follow if the studio essentially disavowed The Interview. That means no theatrical release, no video-on-demand streams, no physical DVDs and -- ironically -- no leaks. Sony's been pretty willing to play ball so far: Its decision to call off the movie's Christmas release already earned it some kudos from the hackers themselves, and the movie's website has already been pulled in accordance with the North Korea's wishes.

This is a developing story, please refresh for updates.

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Source: NBC News (Twitter), FBI