In an interview by the Daily NK, Im Chae Ho, Vice President of the KAIST Cyber Security Research Center spills the beans on North Korea’s cyber attacks. Originally explaining his reasoning for why North Korean hackers are behind the computer system error the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation experienced in mid-April, he shares firsthand knowledge of North Korean hackers infiltrating and stealing South Korean online game sites. Their target would be online currency and private information which they would then sell for foreign moneys. How long they’ve been doing this is unknown but apparently North Korea has put a lot of time and effort into their Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications as Mr. Im mentions “North Korea’s hackers apparently have ten times the strike capability as South Korea’s. North Korea is, furthermore, currently at a stage where it can directly attack South Korea's infrastructure through the use of cyber terrorism.”
It is no surprise then that the suspect of the April cyber attack that created problems for the entire nation as North Korea is fully capable of directly damaging any nation’s systems. Some infiltrations in the US have been suspected of having a North Korean origin. The Vice President alerts that “The U.S. has created malignant codes to attack Iranian nuclear facilities, but hackers have shared those malignant codes with each other. North Korea may now be able to conduct cyber attacks using such codes as well…Approximately 60,000 new malignant codes are created each day. It is practically impossible for cyber security companies like Dr. Ahn's Lab to stop all of these 60,000 malignant codes on a daily basis. South Korean sites are thus facing a big threat in the form of hackers using malignant code to carry out cyber attacks.”
The attacks on game sites were done by hackers using Chinese IP addresses from bases located in China planted by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. The Aprils attacks have been traced to IPs in China.
And I thought North Korea was somewhat computer illiterate...Or maybe just focused and not distracted by backyard crotch shot videos. They may have an inferior physical army but it seems they could be building a strong cyber army...Or just elite "gold farmers!"
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