--- title: NSA Chief Michael Rogers on Sony Hack: “The Entire World is Watching” description: The hack against Sony last month was a "game changer" for cybersecurity, NSA director Michael Rogers said on Thursday. canonical: https://time.com/3660757/nsa-michael-rogers-sony-hack/ author: Sam Frizell article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-01-09T00:19:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T03:25:30.046Z article:section: Politics og:title: NSA Director on Sony Hack: "The Entire World is Watching" og:description: The hack against Sony last month was a "game changer" for cybersecurity, NSA director Michael Rogers said on Thursday. og:url: https://time.com/3660757/nsa-michael-rogers-sony-hack/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc18d0f757b172b16/69876a34cd68482a6e09828d/nsa-michael-rogers.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: NSA Director Rogers Testifies At House Hearing On Cybersecurity Threats og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: NSA Director on Sony Hack: "The Entire World is Watching" twitter:description: The hack against Sony last month was a "game changer" for cybersecurity, NSA director Michael Rogers said on Thursday. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc18d0f757b172b16/69876a34cd68482a6e09828d/nsa-michael-rogers.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # NSA Director on Sony Hack: 'The Entire World is Watching' > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Jan 9, 2015 12:19 AM UTC  Adm. Michael Rogers, commander of the U.S. Cyber Command and director of the National Security Agency, testifies during a hearing before the House (Select) Intelligence Committee Nov. 20, 2014 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Adm. Michael Rogers, commander of the U.S. Cyber Command and director of the National Security Agency, testifies during a hearing before the House (Select) Intelligence Committee Nov. 20, 2014 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Alex Wong—Getty Images by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Jan 9, 2015 12:19 AM UTC National Security Agency Director Admiral Michael Rogers expressed support Thursday for the United States’ economic sanctions against North Korea in response to the hack on Sony Pictures Entertainment, and called the attack against the movie studio a “game changer” for cybersecurity. “Sony is important to me because the entire world is watching how we as a nation are going to respond do this,” Rogers said Thursday at the International Conference on Cyber Security in New York. “If we don’t name names here, it will only encourage others to decide, ‘Well this must not be a red line for the United States.'” After naming North Korea responsible for the attack against Sony, the [U.S. announced sanctions](http://time.com/3652479/sony-hack-north-korea-the-interview-obama-sanctions/) last week against 10 individuals and three organizations in North Korea, including the state’s main intelligence agency and its primary arms exporter. The sanctions effectively denied them access to U.S. financial systems. In his address at the conference, Rogers endorsed the U.S. response to the Sony attack, implying the U.S. government should have a key role in responding to some cyberattacks on private companies. “I don’t think it’s realistic” for private companies “to deal with \[cyberattacks\] totally by themselves,” he said. Rogers that hacks against private companies may require economic sanctions. “Merely because something happens to us in the cyber arena, doesn’t mean that our response has to be focused in the cyber arena” he said. “I was very happy to see what we as a nation state decided to do,” referring to the response to North Korea. He also expressed skepticism about so-called “hack backs” in which private companies strike back against hackers, saying they risk “fratricide” by escalating cyber attacks between nation states and institutions. The NSA was asked to examine malware used in the Sony hack and played a supporting role in determining its origins, Rogers said. The November hack brought down the studio’s networks and resulted in the leaks of terabytes of files including unreleased films and employee Social Security numbers. President Obama said last month the U.S. would launch a proportional response to the attack. Rogers said North Korea was responsible for the hack against Sony Pictures Entertainment, reaffirming [government claims](http://time.com/3651171/sony-hack-north-korea-fbi/) despite doubts among some cybersecurity experts. “I remain very confident: this was North Korea,” Rogers said. The remarks come a day after FBI Director James Comey said North Korea was “[sloppy](http://time.com/3659139/fbi-director-sony-north-korea-kim-jong-un-interview/)” in concealing the attack and said he had “high confidence” the hermit state was responsible. Some cybersecurity experts have argued that the evidence North Korea is behind the attack is inconclusive, noting that the hack may have been the work of disgruntled employees or criminals. Rogers also urged Congress to pass legislation that would encourage information sharing between private companies and the government on cyber threats. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3660757/nsa-michael-rogers-sony-hack/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3660757/nsa-michael-rogers-sony-hack/"},"headline":"NSA Director on Sony Hack: 'The Entire World is Watching'","datePublished":"2015-01-09T00:19:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T03:25:30.046Z","description":"The hack against Sony last month was a \"game changer\" for cybersecurity, the NSA director said on Thursday","url":"https://time.com/3660757/nsa-michael-rogers-sony-hack/","keywords":["National Security","Sony hack"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc18d0f757b172b16/69876a34cd68482a6e09828d/nsa-michael-rogers.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sam Frizell","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc18d0f757b172b16/69876a34cd68482a6e09828d/nsa-michael-rogers.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"NSA Director Rogers Testifies At House Hearing On Cybersecurity Threats","caption":"Adm. 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