The Obama Administration is ready to point the finger at north korea for the unprecedented sony hack. A move that could come as early as this morning. Were considering a range of options about how to respond. Among the possible options, more sanctions. The administration insisting the response will be strong. Ky assure you the United States government is not blinking, were not backing down, were not in a crouching or fear position here. Sources tell cnn theres evidence that the hackers stole computer credentials from a sony System Administrator to get access to the companys computer system. The white house said it did not pressure sony to pull the interview, the controversial comedy which depicts the assassination of north korean dictator, kim jongun. Take him out. For coffee, dinner . We believe that kind of artistic expression is worthy of protection. U. S. Officials are considering exactly how to characterize the hack, which some are calling an act of terrorism. I see it as cyberterrorism and cyberextortion. I think what theyre doing is basically Economic Warfare and they have found a way that is disproportionate to the physical power that north korea possesses. To actually affect economics, a particular company, in this case sony. Pressure is also coming from lawmakers, who want to see the white house deliver a forceful response. Its time for us to respond to this, in a very strong way. And show the rest of the International Community that were not going to allow this to happen without us imposing a cost on a regime that does it. A president ial News Conference scheduled for today, mr. Obama is sure to get questions about the sony hack before he leaves the white house for the holidays. Chris . All right, joe, its a complicated situation, but weve been waiting to see what the u. S. Will do. And now well at least get an answer to that part. The question looms, if pyongyang is involved in this, and it is confronted, how will it respond . For that lets go to kyung lah live on the ground in seoul, south korea. Kyung . We dont know, but thats what makes north korea extremely unpredictable and extremely dangerous. Previous hacks of south korea are any clue, heres what were anticipating. South korea has been a victim, a number of companies here have been the victim of attacks from north korea. Cyberattacks, that is. What weve heard from the regime deny, deny, deny. But underneath that veneer of denials, was cyberintelligence experts here in south korea say is happening is north korea has been building their capabilities for cyberwarfare, theyre sending out more of these agents around the world, they are becoming better, theyre becoming smarter, we heard one cyberintelligence expert tell us today that he considers them one of the top five threats globally, as a country, as far as launching hack attacks. So certainly were anticipating that theyre going to deny it, regardless of what washington says, but theyre going to be continue to be building their army. Chris . Kyung, proof of confidence, check. Proof of intentions, check. What will be the response from the u. S. . And what happens next . Thank you very much. Lets get perspective from tom fuentes, a cnn Law Enforcement analyst and former fbi assistant director and sumi teri, a Senior Research scholar at columbia universitys weatherhead east asia intelligence agency. It seems plausible that north korea is behind the hacking and threats, but what really is our evidence . The preponderance of evidence that the government is coming out and senior Government Official said 99 show that this is north korea. They have the signals intelligence, intercepts with regional officials talking about this. Saying that they probably did it. They have human intelligence, corroborating this. Of course they cant tell us how they found out. But im pretty much positive that if the Intelligence Community is in agreement on this, that it is north korea. And yet tom, we have heard that sophisticated hackers can make it seem as though someone else did it, as though the hack originated from a different computer system. So can you be certain in. No, thats true, alisyn. And it makes it more difficult to be certain. But the reason theyre more sure in this case is because its very similar in methodology to other hacks that did come from north korea. Especially into the south korean systems that kyung just mentioned. So they have that aspect. Theyre not going to reveal every way that theyve been able to determine this. Because much of the investigative technique in this area is classified. When the fbi goes in and looks at computer penetrations. We are wondering about that. Sue, you worked at the white house, will they release actual concrete evidence so the public can see it . I highly doubt that. That would go to sources and methods, and we dont want North Koreans and everybody else to find out exactly how we found out it was north korea. Today its a movie studio. Whats to say tomorrow its not a Nuclear Power plant or its not the electrical grid or its not the nypd . Is this do you fear that this is just a test run . Or this is just the tip of the iceberg . Actually no. And the reason is, because weve had these test runs going after 20 years against our systems. You know, we were dealing with this. I was having meetings, attending meetings within the fbi as far back as 1994. Dealing with the topic of information warfare, which would, which means an attempt by one country to attack the Computer Networks of another country. To bring it to its knees. The problem is the u. S. Is the most vulnerable of any country in the world because we rely on our computers the most. If somebody hacked into your building right now, and shut down the water pumping system, youd have to evacuate because you wouldnt be able to flush the toilet. So everybody in the u. S. Is more vulnerable because of our sophistication. A country like north korea is less vulnerable from that standpoint, because theyre already primitive. So given that, what should the u. S. Do about this . How does it send a message and how does it prevent this, sue . Options are quite limited. North korea is one of the most difficult problems that the u. S. Has been dealt with. Weve been dealing with this problem for 20 years. But there are a number of things we can do. For example i think we could put north korea back on the state sponsors of terrorism list that we took north korea off in the last year of the bush administration. What does that accomplish . Well its more symbolic than anything else. But further squeezing pyongyang. We can also pass House Resolution 1771 in the senate floor right now that imposes additional sanctions on north korea. But again its really hard to combat the north korean problem in general. This is why we say its one of the most difficult Foreign Policy challenges we face. Tom, i hear people online say the u. S. Should retaliate by hacking north korea. Is that the answer . You know, alisyn, theres going to be much in the way of response by the u. S. That we are never going to know. So i think as chris mentioned earlier, the silence being deafening, prepare to stay deaf, because i think all of the measures that will be taken, in and are being taken at this moment, were not going to know. What do we get, sue from a retaliatory hack attack . Is that the right answer . Does that send the message loudest . No. And i dont think thats what the u. S. Government is going to do. So im sure theyre trying to figure out right now how to respond exactly. But theres what are we going to attack exactly . North korea is one of the most unwired country in the world. So i dont think thats going to work. Tom last what about kyung lah was talking, about the Shadowy Group of hackers, the bureau 121, what do we know . We know they have it and we know they have probably a couple thousand people that theyve trained with that. And this almost meets the exact definition of asymmetrical warfare. You have a country that cant reliably launch a missile, even as close as japan, much less reach the United States. But if you can train a couple thousand toplevel hackers like this, then they can cripple sophisticated countries that rely more extensively on its Computer Systems as i mentioned, like the United States. Sue, is there anything that congress can do to prevent a hack attack . Im not sure what congress can do. It would more legislation help . Would who cybersecurity help . Tightenen cybersecurity i guess in general, but im not sure of specific things that congress can take. I think what they should do is pass a resolution and sanctions against north korea. Got it. Sue mi terry, tom fuentes, thanks so much for all the information. Over to michaela, other news. Heres your headlines, breaking overnight, another horrifying tragedy in australia, eight children found stabbed to death in a home in cairns in the northeast coast, the children between the ages of 18 months and 15 years old. Police say a 34yearold woman is also wounded. Shes believed to be the mother of seven of the children. No suspects have been identified at this time. Well stay on the story. The white house is not ruling out the possibility of cuban president raoul castro making a visit to washington, despite the island nations record of human rights violations. Weve learned the name of the spy who was released with alan gross. Sources tell cnn hes been identified as rolando trujillo, he helped lead the u. S. To a network of cuban agents and spies in the United States. Boston marathon bombing suspect Dzokhar Tsarnaev spoke briefly during his First Court Appearance in a year and a half. Acknowledging the judge on procedural issues. During the hearing, the judge heard another push from the defense to move the trial out of boston. The judge did not issue a ruling on that yet. Meanwhile, outside the courthouse, emotions ran high. Survivor you see here, confronting tsarnaev supporters, showing them his prosthetic leg he has to use after losing a limb in the attack. The trial is scheduled to begin early next year. Stephen colbert, bidding farewell to his colbert nation, signing off after nine years 0 on the air. The truthiness is all of those incredible things people say i did. Running for president , saving the olympics. Colbert superpac. Treadmill in space, the rally to restore sanity and or fear. And or cat stevens career. None of that none of that was really me. You, the nation, did all of that. I Just Got Paid for it. Thanks. Light lime curious choice. Colbert led a singalong to the popular hit, well meet again. Look at some of the faces in the crowd. Our very own Christiane Amanpour, singing a robust song. Colbert will replace David Letterman as host of the late show. Cookie monster, fantastic, arianna. Some as if they were doing it against their will. The power of colbert. He got franco out there. Part of the sony hack situation, they said he wasnt doing any media. Oprahesque in its grandeur. Who is the man behind the colbert character. Does he go full colbert. Hes from canada. Probably get the inside scoop. Hes from canada. I dont think so. He had cuban coffee yesterday. Its still in my system. Ill get back to reality. President obama has a tough reality in front of him. 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Especially since the Midterm Election beatdown. Lets discuss his actions, some historic. We have cnn political analyst john avlon and republican consultant, margaret hoover. Margaret, i allow you to make the case for president obamas audacity, historic move in china with the trade deal. Another historic move with cuba. Going after it on immigration. How impressed are you by these moves . Right. Thats what you call a tree falling in the forest. Im not a huge fan. What we know is that president s in their last two years, especially when its a lame duck congress, when the congress begins, basically have authority to act unilaterally on Foreign Policy. Thats about it. What president bush did in the last two years of his administration was focus heavily on iraq. The surge had been implemented and he was working hard to make sure that he left office with iraq in a more stable situation, but he did not take all of what he did. Mission accomplished, i remember it well. That was after that. Nobody is defending that any more. We wont go there this morning. But in this case, its quite interesting, because the president hasnt even allowed the new congress to come into washington yet. So he didnt even give peace a chance. Hes just gone straight to the border, straight to immigration, straight to all of these pieces which hes going to call legacy pieces and you know, made it quite difficult or suggestive that hes not interested in giving it a go when the new Congress Comes in. Should he have Given Congress a chance . Im all for giving peace a chance, you cant be naive. The president is looking at a different style of a lame duck. This is a liberated lame duck. Hes going to go full bullworth. Take charge, say and do what he means, hes saying that, hes not simply marking time here, hes swinging for the fences, cuba a bold move overturning what ten president s have done, status quo. Immigration action and Climate Change, hes not going to be lucy and the football. Mitch mcconnell saying he wants to Work Together thats great. But lets not put too much hope with the republicans work. Hes going to take reaction. You saw my aflac reference and you upped me, with bullworth and lucy and the football. Strong. The word you left out of the analysis, margaret was latinos. The move with cuba will add implication witheno community. Move on immigration, implications for the latino community. A bigminus there. Influential, but normally, not aligned with going to be aligned with this policy. The majority thats why im saying plusminus. I gave you an opening. I understand what youre saying, its going to amielorate the president obama won cubans in south florida last psych until 2012 narrowly, but he did. Theres a big generational divide. Thats why he feels he can make the calculation without screwing democrats in florida Going Forward. One interesting thing that president obama is doing, some would say tricky, is passing a whole slew of president ial memoranda, basically the same as an executive order, but its a different name and it circumvents congress, hes passed more of these president ial memos than any of his predecessors. So whats going, whats he trying to do with this . This is the hallmark of a president who hasnt been able to pass landmark legislation with congress or work functionally with congress. They fall back on the powers of the executive branch. Whats fascinating is the president has several times compared his record of executive orders to his predecessors and said, you call me the person who is having executive overreach. But ive had less executive orders than george w. Bush or any president before me. But then when you look at the difference between a president ial memoranda and executive order, f