President Barack Obama told CNN's Candy Crowley Friday that the unprecedented attack against Sony Pictures Entertainment was a mere act of "cybervandalism" rather than cyberterrorism or even an act of war.
Crowley landed an interview with Obama on Friday after a press conference that addressed a number of issues, including North Korean hackers' cyberattack of Sony. That hack was an aggressive effort to get Sony to stop the release of the satire "The Interview," which depicted the assassination of North Korea's dictator Kim Jong-un.
Obama's comments to Crowley appeared to downplay the seriousness of the Sony hack, which released troves of sensitive and sometimes embarrassing internal documents onto the internet. During his press conference, Obama criticized Sony for canceling the theatrical release of "The Interview," which was supposed to come out Christmas Day.
Crowley's interview with Obama will air in full this weekend, and she described the interview (and Obama's "cybervandalism" description) in a teaser on the air Friday night.