Security
North Korea’s drones: Made in China?
Apr 20th
A drone recovered by South Korea that the country suspects was on a spying mission from the north bears a close resemblance to one produced by a Chinese aerospace company.
The drone was one of several discovered in the last month close to the inter-Korean border. The stubby craft was painted sky blue with a few wisps of white paint, perhaps to better blend in with the sky, and inside its stubby body was a digital camera.
A drone found crashed in South Korea (Photo: Korean Ministry of Defense)
That drone appears to be closely related to the Sky-09P, an unmanned aerial vehicle produced More >
DPRK military could turn to cyber-warfare for lower costs
Mar 7th
North Korea’s military could turn to cyber-based attacks and weapons as a more cost-effective alternative to conventional weapons, the U.S. Department of Defense says in a new report.
But the annual report to Congress on “Military and Security Developments Involving the DPRK” is also a lot more cautious in blaming North Korea for a series of recent cyber attacks that have targeted South Korea.
Unlike the statements and reports that comes from the South Korean government, the North’s capability to launch attacks isn’t even stated as a certainty by the DoD.
“North Korea probably has a military offensive cyber operations (OCO) capability,” it says in More >
Japan, US to increase intelligence sharing
Jan 30th
Japan is sharing an increasing amount of intelligence information with the United States and emerging as a great partner in East Asia, the U.S. director of national intelligence said Thursday.
Speaking during a public hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee in Washington, James Clapper said the two countries were working more closely together on intelligence matters.
“The Japanese are emerging as great partners,” said Clapper.
Clapper was responding to a question from Senator Marco Rubio (Republican, Florida), about a recently-passed Japanese state secrecy law. Rubio said he had just returned from a trip to Asia that included Japan.
“The passage of this secrets protection law will … enable More >
Report: South Korean arrested for aiding North’s spy bureau
Dec 22nd
A South Korean businessman has been arrested by local authorities on suspicion of passing classified information and video and audio system technology to North Korea, Yonhap reported on Saturday.
The report said the suspect, identified only as a 54-year-old man called “Kang,” worked with agents of North Korea’s Reconnaissance General Bureau to pass the information. He regularly traveled to China and made contact with the agents directly and through email.
Few other pieces of information were available.
The case could be interesting because the Reconnaissance General Bureau is the Korean People’s Army unit responsible for spying activities, including infiltration of South Korea and electronic More >
South Korea eyes high-tech blimps at the border
Oct 1st
A blimp lifts off from its launch pad at Forward Operating Base Shank, Logar province, Afghanistan, on July 31. (File Photo: US Army / Spc. Theodore Schmidt)
South Korean defense officials plan to soon launch a high-tech blimp just south of the disputed maritime border with North Korea in November to get a better look into the neighboring country, according to a report in Stars and Stripes.
The airship will hover over the island group that includes Yeonpyong, which is the island that was shelled by North Korean forces in 2010 resulting in the deaths of four South Koreans.
The newspaper quoted a spokesman for More >
North Korean newspaper hits out at U.S. cyber warfare policy
Aug 12th
Citing a top secret U.S. government document leaked by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, North Korea’s Minju Joson newspaper has attacked America’s cyber warfare policy calling it an “open threat to mankind” and a “declaration of the cyber war.”
The Presidential Policy Directive 20, an October 2012 paper that outlined U.S. cyber operations policy for those in the highest officials in the U.S. government, called for a list of potential targets for possible U.S. cyber attacks under the umbrella of “Offensive Cyber Effects Operations.”
That’s likely worried North Korea, which probably has a better chance than many other nations of making such a list.
“This means that More >
South suspects North Korean hackers hit on June 25
Jul 17th
The South Korean government says it suspects hackers in North Korea were behind a series of cyber attacks last month.
The attacks took place on June 25, the anniversary of the beginning of the Korean war, and continued for several days. When they began, several South Korean government and private-run websites were defaced or taken offline.
The main evidence behind the South’s accusations was the discovery of an IP address linked to North Korea and similarities in software code between the June 25 attack and previous attacks, the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, said Tuesday.
IP addresses are unique numeric identifiers More >
“DarkSeoul” behind some South Korean hacks, says Symantec
Jun 28th
A hacking group called “DarkSeoul” was behind some of this week’s attacks on South Korean websites, according to researchers at computer security company Symantec.
The company says the group was responsible for denial of service attacks on South Korean government websites and can be directly linked to similar actions in the past.
“We can now attribute multiple previous high-profile attacks to the DarkSeoul gang over the last 4 years against South Korea, in addition to yesterday’s attack,”Symantec said on its Security Response blog. “These attacks include the devastating Jokra attacks in March 2013 that wiped numerous computer hard drives at South Korean banks and television broadcasters, as well More >
Analyzing the June 25 DDoS attacks
Jun 27th
Tuesday’s series of denial of service attacks on major North Korean websites caused delays and frustration for legitimate users but doesn’t appear to have been as large or successful as the first round of attacks in late March and early April this year.
Analysis by NorthKoreaTech.org of data related to the attacks shows the so-called “OpNorthKorea” mission was most successful during its first few hours and then appeared to slowly tail off.
Denial of service attacks involve firing off requests for pages to websites. If enough requests can be sent, the site ends up overloaded and no one gets anything. Success of More >
Hackers attack North, South Korean websites
Jun 25th
The previously announced June 25 attack on North Korean websites by hackers working under the “Anonymous” name took an unexpected turn on Tuesday when several South Korean sites were hit with attacks. The actions coincided with the release of what hackers said were stolen files on American military personnel.
The North Korean attack did start as scheduled and appears to have been initially successful. Most major North Korean websites are either inaccessible or difficult to access, indicating they are being hit by a denial of service attack. This involves overwhelming a web server with requests so it gets tied up and More >
