Provided by IBT US Hackers infiltrate US companies from abroad

This is going to get worse before it gets better.

Thats largely the message from cybersecurity experts and former U.S. cyber officials who say that the alarming hack against Sony Pictures Entertainment underscores not only the lack of corporate Internet security, but also law enforcements struggle to prevent similar data breaches from occurring again.

A hacking group calling itself the Guardians of Peace first claimed responsibility for the attack on Sony on Nov. 24. The weeks since have seen the unauthorized disclosure of a trove of embarrassing emails sent between Sony executives, the leak of unreleased movies and, earlier this week, a reference to the September 11th terrorist attacks. Yet for all the hackers bluster, and Sonys apparent paralysis, theres so far been sparse talk of meaningful American retaliation.

Jim Penrose, a former directorate of Signals Intelligence and chief of Operational Discovery at the National Security Agency, said forensic investigators are still largely trying to determine the best method to prevent attacks. Recent attacks at Home Depot, Target, JP Morgan and others also prove that, when it comes to prosecuting international crime, police have no choice but to enter a web of geopolitics that rarely, if ever, results in the perpetrators apprehension.

After filling various posts within the NSA over a 17-year period, Penrose now serves as executive vice president of Cyber Intelligence at Darktrace, a United Kingdom-based cybersecurity firm that protects Virgin trains and Drax Power, which provides electricity for 14 percent of Western Europes population.

International Business Times caught up with Penrose this week to get his thoughts on the Sony situation and the state of cybersecurity in general.

IBTimes: Pretend youre one of the FBI investigators on the front lines of the Sony case. Whats going through your mind right now?

Jim Penrose: I think the main thing investigators would like to get to the bottom of is how this initially happened, what was the way in, was there an insider who helped or was it really just from the outside-in? That would be an interesting conclusion to find out. Youd also like to figure out by which way they spread the malware. Was that malware unique? Is that malware attributable to specific actors?

This is an area where law enforcement breaks down. Theres no ally to go to get a warrant served, or extradite someone and try to bring them to justice. The military has its own legal regime but this is different, cyberspace isnt as well governed as the ships in the sea or planes in the sky.

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