Amongst the many ambiguities and unknowns surrounding “the great Sony hack” of 2014, one thing is clear: a non-state actor was publicly shamed—quite effectively—by a powerful state.

The unfolding episode over the film The Interview underlines the potential for business decisions, whatever their motivation, to become intertwined with foreign relations among states and companies.

Sony-North Korea incident underlines that multinationals need to consider the world at large.

North Korea’s state-run news agency claims that suggestions Pyongyang was behind the cyber attack on Sony Pictures are “wild rumor.” But according to the New York Times and other media sources, U.S. intelligence officials have concluded otherwise. The attack, those officials say, “was both state-sponsored and far more destructive than any seen before on American soil.”

President Barack Obama declared Friday that Sony “made a mistake” in shelving a satirical film about a plot to assassinate North Korea’s leader, and he pledged the U.S. would respond “in a place and manner and time that we choose” to the hacking attack on Sony that led to the withdrawal. The FBI blamed the hack on the North’s communist government.