WASHINGTON — A White House official said on Thursday that the administration was considering a “proportional response” against those who hacked into Sony Pictures computers, a retaliation that could thrust the United States into a direct confrontation with North Korea.
华盛顿——一名白宫官员在周四表示，政府正在考虑对入侵索尼电影娱乐公司(Sony Pictures)电脑的黑客做出“适当回应”，反击行动可能会使美国陷入与朝鲜的直接对抗之中。
Officials would not describe what such a response might entail, but they stressed that the episode had become a major concern at the upper levels of government, including President Obama, who lately has been discussing the issue with aides every day.
官员们没有说明会采取哪些回应举措，但他们强调，该事件已经受到包括奥巴马在内的政府高层的高度关注，奥巴马最近每天都在与助手讨论这个问题。

“This is something that’s being treated as a serious national security matter,” Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, told reporters. “There is evidence to indicate that we have seen destructive activity with malicious intent that was initiated by a sophisticated actor.”
“这起事件是作为严重的国家安全问题来对待的，”白宫发言人乔希·欧内斯特(Josh Earnest)告诉记者。“有证据表明，我们看到的是由老练的行动者发动的、带有恶意的破坏性活动。”
United States officials have privately concluded that North Korea was “centrally involved” in the hacking even as Sony canceled the release of a comedy that features the fictional assassination of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, and that apparently prompted the cyberattack. Mr. Earnest would not confirm the North Korean role at his daily briefing but he did not deny it either, saying that investigators would ultimately report on their findings.
美国官员私下里的结论是，朝鲜与黑客事件“密切相关”，索尼取消放映的喜剧电影，显然是引发了网络攻击的原因，该片讲述了刺杀朝鲜领导人金正恩(Kim Jong-un)的虚构故事。欧内斯特在每日简报会上没有证实朝鲜在该事件中扮演的角色，但他也没有予以否认，称调查人员最终会汇报调查结果。
Mr. Earnest said the government did not tell Sony to pull the film, “The Interview,” and expressed support for the studio’s right to make it, even if it would offend some viewers.
欧内斯特表示，政府没有要求索尼取消电影《采访》(The Interview)的放映，并表示了对该公司的支持，称其有权制作这样一部电影，即便影片会冒犯一些观众。
“The United States stands squarely on the side of artists and companies that want to express themselves,” he said, “and we believe that that kind of artistic expression is worthy of expression and is not something that should be subjected to intimidation just because you happen to disagree with the views.”
“美国将坚定地站在希望表达自己的艺术家和公司一边，”他说，“而且我们相信，那种艺术表达是值得表达的，不应该因为你刚好不同意这些观点而受到恐吓。”
But he was vague about what kind of action the United States might take in response to the cyberattack and even hinted that it may be of a character that was hard to publicly detect. He added that the president and his team would take into consideration that its authors might be trying to stir a response to get attention, a calculation often imputed by Washington to North Korea’s mercurial leadership.
但是，他并未明确表示美国将采取何种行动来回应此次网络攻击，甚至暗示可能会通过一种公众难以察觉的方式。他还表示，总统和他的团队将考虑，袭击者是否只是试图激起回应，以引起关注。这种做法往往被华盛顿归咎于朝鲜领导层的反复无常。
“They would be mindful of the fact that we need a proportional response, and also mindful of the fact that sophisticated actors, when they carry out actions like this, are oftentimes — not always, but often — seeking to provoke a response from the United States of America,” Mr. Earnest said. “They may believe that a response from us in one fashion or another would be advantageous to them. So we want to be mindful of that.”
“他们应该会注意这样一个事实：我们需要做出合理的回应，也应该注意，经验丰富的袭击者在做出这种举动时，往往是——不总是，但经常如此——希望能激起美国的回应，”欧内斯特说。“他们可能认为，不论我们做出什么反应，都对他们有利。所以我们希望能小心谨慎。”