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Amid threats from hackers, studio cancels Dec. 25 opening of "The Interview"; sources say U.S. has determined Pyongyang is behind the hack

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ICANN is investigating a recent intrusion into our systems. We believe a spear phishing attack was initiated in late November 2014. It involved email messages that were crafted to appear to come from our own domain being sent to members of our staff, said a statement published on the ICANN website.

Spear phishing the forging of trusted communication to access private data - is a popular fraud and hacking technique, and has been famously used by the Syrian Electronic Army to hijack the social media accounts of some of the most prominent media organizations in the world. It may also have been implicated in the unsolved but devastating attack on Sony Pictures last month.

READ MORE: Happy Thanksgiving! Syrian Electronic Army hack mayhem hits Western media sites

In its most open form, it can be a letter asking someone to change their password, on what turns out to be a fake site, though often hackers can disguise the moment data is transferred out of safe hands, for example by creating indistinguishable fake login pages.

READ MORE: US investigators link North Korea to Sony hack - officials

Los Angeles-based ICANN, or the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, is responsible for handling the majority of internet domain names, making sure they can be universally accessed from any computer in the world, and that they avoid technological and property conflicts.

As well as accessing internal emails, the intruders were able to gain access to the Centralized Zone Data Service (CZDS) the database that contains the zone files, which map the path between the IP address, the identification of a computer hosting data, and the name of the domain. Millions of websites have their zone files, and additional data, stored and managed by ICANN.

The attacker obtained administrative access to all files in the CZDS. This included copies of the zone files in the system, as well as information entered by users such as name, postal address, email address, fax and telephone numbers, username, and password. Although the passwords were stored as salted cryptographic hashes, we have deactivated all CZDS passwords as a precaution, said ICANN.

While the hack may not have led to any harmful fraud at this point, the internal data obtained by the hackers can be used for future scams, whether through spear phishing or other means.

Due to its technical function, ICANN generally flew under the radar during the early years of the web, but has recently become an international political football. As the internet has spread across the world, officials have become riled that such an important role is performed by an unaccountable US-based body.

READ MORE: Amid NSA fallout, US to relinquish top internet oversight role

Barack Obama has attempted to transition ICANN into a more international organization. But the Republican-dominated Congress, worried about countries with rival political systems getting to dictate the rules of the internet, has just barred the federal government from using its funds to change the status of the organization in its Cromnibus budget bill.

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Evidence shows North Korean hackers are likely responsible for the intrusion that exposed embarrassing emails, scuttled a movie premiere

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Sources describe elaborate route Pyongyang might have used to hide its involvement

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Eye Opener: White House considers action in the Sony cyberattack

President Obama considers how to strike back against North Korea for the Sony hack attack. Also, a blistering report on the Secret Service says the agency needs new leadership and the White House needs a new fence. All that and all that matters in todays Eye Opener. Your world in 90 seconds.

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A look at some of the evidence the FBI used to tie the cyberattack against Sony to the North Korean government

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Response that appears to be from hackers comes after FBI says North Korea was responsible for attack

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President Obama says the U.S. is mulling a response after blaming the North Korean government for the cyberattack on Sony

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N. Korea threatens US, demands apology for Obamas reckless rumors of Sony hack

The FBI report of the investigation into the hack at the Sony Pictures Entertainment is based on intentional allegation rather than scientific evidence of the North Korean involvement, said the Policy Department of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK.

After all, the grounds cited by the FBI in its announcement were all based on obscure sci-tech data and a false story and, accordingly, the announcement itself is another fabrication, the statement reads, that accuses the US of gangster-like behavior.

READ MORE: Washington suggests Pyongyang pays damages to Sony for unreleased film

Pyongyang earlier proposed a joint investigation with the United States into the hack, saying it has a way to prove that we have nothing to do with the case without resorting to torture as the CIA does."

In response, US National Security spokesman Mark Stroh said the North Korean government can indeed help by admitting its culpability and compensating Sony for the damages.

Pyongyang believes the frontrunner of the anti-North crusade is the US leader himself who is using Sonys case as propaganda against North Korea.

US President Obama is recklessly making the rumor about DPRKs cyber-attack on Sony Pictures a fait accompli while crying out for symmetric counteraction, strict calculation and additionally retaliatory sanctions, the statement reads.

Can he really cover up the crimes he has committed by trying so hard to falsify the truth and turn white to black? North Korea asks.

The scandal was sparked by the attack linked to Sony produced comedy The Interview, which includes a plot to kill North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

The movie had been scheduled to be released on Christmas Day, but on Thursday, just hours after the FBI accused Pyongyang of staging a cyber-attack on Sony, the company said the $44 million film would be shelved instead.

READ MORE: Obama chides Sonys decision to nix film, says US must retaliate and pass cyber act

President Barack Obama expressed his discontent with the decision of Sony Pictures Entertainment, saying that the company made a mistake and should have spoken to him first.

We cannot have a society in which some dictators someplace can start imposing censorship here in the United States because if somebody is able to intimidate us out of releasing a satirical movie, imagine what they start doing once they see a documentary that they dont like or news reports that they dont like, Obama said.

For its part North Korea claims to have clear evidence that the US administration was deeply involved in producing The Interview, as its script was written according to the "guidelines" of the US State Department.

Pyongyang accused the US of being the chief culprit of terrorism that schemed behind the scene to produce and distribute movies that destabilize countries around the world, and threatened retaliation against Washington if it proceeds with the proportional response that Obama promised.

Our toughest counteraction will be boldly taken against the White House, the Pentagon and the whole US mainland, the cesspool of terrorism, by far surpassing the symmetric counteraction declared by Obama, Pyongyang said, urging the US to reflect on its evil doings and apologize to the North Koreans.

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The Internet tables may have turned on North Korea.

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