It's hard indeed to believe that anyone raised and living in DPRK would get the skills, technical and social, demonstrated in this hack. But it's not impossible that such a non-Korean person has been funded and helped by DPRK, either before or after they've started gaining privileged access to Sony's network.
So sure, that's not done by North Korean hackers, but it's not excluded that it involves North Korean money.
I guess a strong clue will be to see if Sony's nightmares calm down after they've scrapped the Interview, as allegedly expected by the hacker. I'd rather bet on a bounty hunting follow-up, _a la_ 419Eater, which I confess I'd find extremely entertaining.
Just because 90% of the country is technologically impaired doesn't mean they can't do this. This would be like saying the USSR couldn't go into space because they still did agriculture using horses.
NK has made their own Linux distribution, and they made nuclear bombs. Being able to hack isn't out of the question.
It's more the sociological Internet-savvyness which strikes me as unlikely than the technical feat. Besides, we don't know the relative importance of computer hacking skills vs. social engineering vs. victim incompetence in the breach's success, although we know that all three were required to make this possible.
It's not that far fetched. Even shitty countries can and usually do have programs to train a small subset of the population at the world level if that's necessary to achieve some goals of the rulers.
I remember watching a documentary where they toured North Korea. They went into the computer lab at their university, trying to show off how they were keeping up with technology. All of the people in there were just staring at the screens. I don't think they had internet access or any of them knew how to use a computer, it was just a façade. The one person they spoke to had no idea what he was talking about and looked kind of terrified.
They went into the computer lab at their university
That's civilian; the military is a whole 'nother story:
From a Reuters story about the Sony hack [0]:
Military hackers are among the most talented, and rewarded, people in North Korea, handpicked and trained from as young as 17, said Jang Se-yul, who studied with them at North Korea's military college for computer science, or the University of Automation, before defecting to the South six years ago.
Speaking to Reuters in Seoul, he said the Bureau 121 unit comprises about 1,800 cyber-warriors, and is considered the elite of the military.
"For them, the strongest weapon is cyber. In North Korea, it’s called the Secret War," Jang said.
One of his friends works in an overseas team of the unit, and is ostensibly an employee of a North Korean trading firm, Jang said. Back home, the friend and his family have been given a large state-allocated apartment in an upscale part of Pyongyang, Jang said.
This is a very naive view of a nation state, do you really think there aren't agent of the state in other countries that fit in so perfectly you wouldn't be able to recognise them?
They have a few theoretical physicists (one that I know of) working on string theory, so I wouldn't be surprised if they had a few computer scientists as well. Hacking into a computer system is not exactly rocket science.
So sure, that's not done by North Korean hackers, but it's not excluded that it involves North Korean money.
I guess a strong clue will be to see if Sony's nightmares calm down after they've scrapped the Interview, as allegedly expected by the hacker. I'd rather bet on a bounty hunting follow-up, _a la_ 419Eater, which I confess I'd find extremely entertaining.