Hacking
DPRK denies cyber attack on Nonghyup Bank
May 11th
The DPRK has made its first comment on allegations that it was behind a cyber attack on a large South Korean bank and, not surprisingly, has denied any involvement.
Last week South Korean prosecutors said they had found evidence that North Korea was behind the April attack, which brought chaos to the computer system and ATM network of Nonghyup Bank for several days. It was one of the most disruptive cyber attacks to-date on the South Korean financial system.
Prosecutors made the allegations after examining the laptop of an IBM employee working at the bank. The laptop was apparently used as a More >
North Korea behind Internet attacks, says South
Apr 9th
South Korea’s National Police Agency says North Korea was behind cyber attacks that targeted 30 major websites between March 3 and 5, according to local news reports.
Websites such as the presidential office and Financial Services Commission were brought down by the distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack.
A DDoS attack involves flooding a server with so many requests that it becomes clogged and cannot operate. This is typically done by harnessing a vast network of computers to send the traffic simultaneously and continuously.
Rather than buy and build the computers, hackers usually build this network by infecting PCs with illicit software. At More >
Uriminzokkiri’s Twitter account still down
Jan 22nd
Uriminzokkiri, the China-based website that carries North Korean news to the world, was the center of attention earlier this month when its Twitter and YouTube channels were hacked.
Four Twitter messages and a YouTube video denigrating Kim Jong Il and his son, Kim Jong Un, were posted on Jan. 8, which is reportedly the birthday of the younger Kim.
The YouTube channel was reinstated within a few days and is back to its usual diet state-TV clips and videos produced by the website, which appears to have close ties to Pyongyang.
However, two weeks on from the hacking and Uriminzokkiri appears to still not More >
FNK Radio attracts North Korean Internet audience
Jan 18th
Free North Korea Radio, one of the handful of independent broadcasters targeting North Korea, attracted a direct connection to its website from inside the DPRK on Wednesday morning.
The site said an incoming connection from North Korea was recorded between 9:30am and 10am on Wednesday morning. It included the following screenshot (see below) from its site showing a connection from what appears to be within the North Korean IP address range that’s recently been activated by Star JV.
Star’s IP addresses run from 175.45.176.0 to 175.45.179.255.
Free North Korea Radio, based in Seoul and run by defectors from the north, broadcasts programming critical of More >
Uriminzokkiri Twitter reportedly hacked
Jan 8th
The Twitter account of Uriminzokkiri, the China-based web site with close ties to Pyongyang, has apparently been compromised. (See the bottom of this post for updates.)
Four messages posted on Saturday morning are derogatory to leader Kim Jong-Il and Kim Jong-Un, his son and heir apparent.
Yonhap News translated one of the messages:
“Let’s create a new world by rooting out our people’s sworn enemy Kim Jong-il and his son Kim Jong-un!” — Yonhap News, Jan. 8, 2011
The messages are still visible at time of writing and are reproduced below.
The apparent hacking comes on Kim Jong-Un’s 28th birthday and will be an embarrassment More >
North Korean hackers probe South, say reports
Oct 21st
Two South Korean media outlets, KBS and the Chosun Ilbo, are reporting the government says it has traced “hackers” back to a server operating in North Korea.
KBS says:
A government official says North Korea has attempted to hack information on South Korea’s water supply and drainage systems.
The Chosun Ilbo provides a little more detail:
Evidence points to North Korean hackers attempting to gather information about water supply and drainage systems, pathways of toxic materials, and traffic control near the venue of the G20 Summit in Seoul, according to the Cyber Terror Response Center of the National Police Agency.
But both reports failed to More >
North Korea’s Cyber-warfare Capability
Sep 9th
38 North, the Web site of the US Korea Institute at SAIS has a piece on North Korea’s cyber warfare capabilities.
The article provides some of the background to claims that North Korea has been training computer programmers and hackers in the black arts of cyber warfare. It also looks at some of the obstacles the country faces, such as lack of a stable electricity supply, and concludes:
Absent these developments, we should regard North Korean cyber capabilities in the same light we consider its other forays into advanced military systems—strong interest and ragged, self-made technologies, accompanied by bluster and exaggeration.
Full story: More >
North Korea off hook for 2009 cyberattacks?
Jul 4th
North Korea has largely been ruled out as the source of a series of cyberattacks on South Korea in July 2009, the Associated Press reports quoting security experts.
The attacks targeted South Korean and U.S. government and corporate Web sites for about a week. The attacks took some of the sites down for lengthy periods of time.
At the time some lawmakers in both Seoul and Washington were reported to have pointed the finger of blame at North Korea, although offered no evidence. Experts were saying the same thing last year – they saw no evidence the attacks came from North Korea. Although More >
