Washington said on Thursday that it was considering a proportional response to the Sony hack and that it was being treated as a matter of national security, however stopped short of naming North Korea as the culprit.

Although White House spokesman Josh Earnest did not give further details on the response, he added that the hackers might be seeking to illicit one, and that the U.S. did not want to enhance their standing on the international stage.

“[The U.S.] would be mindful of the fact that sophisticated actors, when they carry out actions like this, are oftentimes — not always,