Here's Why US Authorities Think North Korea Hacked Sony

US officials believe North Korea is "centrally involved" in hacking Sony Pictures, reports The New York Times.

The Times paints a picture of how the attacks against Sony could have been carried out by North Korea.

The hackers, who call themselves the Guardians of Peace (GOP) used commercial tools to carry out their attack and used similar techniques to previous attacks on Iran and Saudi Arabia.

The hackers also routed their attack through the same Bolivian severs that had been used for an attack on North Korea in 2012.

The hackers also used malware similar to what was used in an attack on South Korean banks and media in 2013.

Most of this evidence is circumstantial, and the Times notes that it "does not prove" the identity of the hackers. It's easy for hackers to disguise their tracks, and as a security expert told Business Insider earlier, tools formerly used by sophisticated nation states are now trickling down to lower-level hackers.

Sony announced on Thursday that it was pulling "The Interview" from its December 25 release because of threats of terrorism from the GOP.

Here's the full report from The New York Times.