Security
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 >
Rodong Sinmun on IT psychological warfare
Dec 16th
Rodong Sinmun, the DPRK’s national daily newspaper of the Workers’ Party of Korea, attacked the U.S. on Tuesday for “waging a vicious psychological warfare on the basis of modern science and technology.”
The article, an English synopsis of which was reported by KCNA, said the U.S. is using it to attack “anti-imperialist independent countries.”
It’s the first time in a while that psychological warfare has come up on KCNA, but the article is frustratingly lacking in specifics of the specific actions it is complaining about.
U.S. intelligence gathering bodies and their affiliated institutions are now busy widely using modern scientific and technological means 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 Appears Capable of Jamming GPS Receivers
Oct 15th
The Voice of America has an interesting story on the jamming of GPS signals along the border region. The jamming signals are apparently from North Korea and rendered GPS systems in the region unusable.
This week, the South Korea Communications Commission informed lawmakers that between August 23 and 25, signals emanating from near the North Korean city of Kaesong interfered with South Korean GPS military and civilian receivers on land and at sea.
In theory, the jamming of GPS isn’t difficult. All that is required is a signal powerful enough to disrupt or override the relatively weak signals being received from space. The More >
DPRK concerned about US electronic warfare capability
Sep 20th
The Voice of America has got its hands on a military manual said to have been smuggled from North Korea. The manual, which was apparently published in 2005, reveals Pyongyang’s concern about electronic warfare technology used by the United States and South Korea, reports VOA. The document also indicates North Korea’s military uses radar-absorbing paint and other stealth tactics to conceal its weapons.
VOA has also posted the manual as a document on Scribd.
Full Story: VOA
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 >
