By Dave Dahl/Illinois Radio Network

SPRINGFIELD – The “Sony hack,” the cyber security attack allegedly carried out by North Korea, is a bigger story than whether we get to see a movie comedy or whether embarrassing e-mails were exposed.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said in Springfield Friday it’s an example of what an otherwise “backward country … that can’t even feed its own people” can do. He said a country capable of creeping into an international company’s central nervous system could certainly move the puppet strings on traffic signals, water purification systems, and who knows what.

“We have a lot of efforts under way to put pressure on North Korea,” said Durbin, “and to try to stop them – particularly from the development of nuclear weapons and this type of cyber terrorism. We need to keep the pressure on them. We need to work with others. Ironically, we need to work with China.”

Durbin said he received an FBI briefing this morning.