4 ms·

This article to me is just more evidence that North Korea was not behind the Sony hack and possibly other high-profile attacks attributed to them. I mean on th

This article to me is just more evidence that North Korea was not behind the Sony hack and possibly other high-profile attacks attributed to them. I mean on the Sony end you have something requiring extreme sophistication and technical knowledge to pull something like that off.. and this article depicts North Korean hackers exactly how you picture them. Barely owning computers, not having enough to survive themselves, poorly organized, and grinding video games and selling pirated software as a means to make ends meet. These two parallel depictions of the same group never seem to cross except in the opening paragraphs of articles where the reader is meant to assume that these groups are one in the same.

beezischillin 9y ago
Yeah, I mean.. the WannaCry-thing wasn't proven to be North Korean either as far as I know...
- lern_too_spel 9y ago
  Multiple private companies have pointed to DPRK as the source, and several government agencies claim to have direct evidence.
realusername 9y ago
I never bought into the North Korean elite hackers for this reason, the country has already a lot of technological issues at the moment and having an hacker army in these conditions would be quite a feat.
- klibertp 9y ago
  I don't know, on the one hand, NK is objectively behind other nations, but on the other hand, it's still a nation-state, with millions of subjects and complete freedom in shaping their policies. They did manage to build something resembling nuclear weapon without help from outside...
  - realusername 9y ago
    Yes indeed but it took them a very long time to build some and we have a lot of traces of NK trying to get intelligence data about nuclear weapons, on the other hand, I've never seen anything which could indicate that they built a proper hacking army (not just an army of scammers to get more money).
    - lern_too_spel 9y ago
      > I've never seen anything which could indicate that they built a proper hacking army Google for Bureau 121 and 91 Office. Just because this article is about a programmer who mostly cracked software doesn't mean that other programmers with other focus areas don't exist.
    - Can_Not 9y ago
      Could thier army not be composed of 1,000 technically inclined cyber-scammers and 10 "proper hackers"?
  - toomanybeersies 9y ago
    They had help from Pakistan at the start of the nuclear program.
- chatmasta 9y ago
  They can pay foreign nationals to hack for them.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
lern_too_spel 9y ago
What about the Sony hack required extreme sophistication? The GoP's original emails were ignored because they seemed like people who didn't know what they were doing. The source IPs were from a North Korean business in China. The malware matched what had previously only been used against South Korean banks, also from North Korean IPs. The reason the North Korean source IPs were seen accessing GoP's Facebook page and the compromised systems was due to sloppiness on the part of the attacker. What motive does anyone else have to demand either that The Interview not be released or that the ending be modified so that Kim's death wasn't "too happy?"
- crdoconnor 9y ago
  >What other motive do you have for a Sony hack where the perpetrators demand either that The Interview not be released or that the ending be modified so that Kim's death wasn't "too happy?" That Lulzsec are engaged in a game of misdirection? I've never found "Malware X was used in attack Y" or "it came from these IP addresses owned by Z" to ever be a convincing argument for attribution. Whereas I'm fairly easily convinced that the party responsible for the hack would prefer it if the FBI believes that the real attacker is outside of their jurisdiction so they don't come knocking on their door. The fact that North Korea is everybody's favourite bogeyman from the CIA down makes them a convenient mark. North Korea also has a habit of admitting to and bragging about military attacks whereas this time they just said "wasn't us, good job though guys". I'm not entirely sure what motive they'd have for denying the fact that they revealed a bunch of movie star salaries when most people think it was them anyhow.
  - lern_too_spel 9y ago
    > North Korea also has a habit of admitting to and bragging about military attacks They still claim no involvement in the death of Kim Jong Nam and the destruction of Korean Air Flight 858. You're confusing overt military actions with covert actions against civilian targets. Of course they will loudly boast about the former. Boasting about computer attacks that can help attribute other covert attacks is too stupid even for DPRK. > I've never found "Malware X was used in attack Y" or "it came from these IP addresses owned by Z" to ever be a convincing argument for attribution. That's just the publicly released evidence, which is enough to draw a conclusion. You think somebody who is doing it for the lulz wouldn't then brag about doing it for the lulz on IRC? That happens every other time, which is one reason why your explanation is less plausible.

beezischillin 9y ago

Yeah, I mean.. the WannaCry-thing wasn't proven to be North Korean either as far as I know...

lern_too_spel 9y ago
Multiple private companies have pointed to DPRK as the source, and several government agencies claim to have direct evidence.

realusername 9y ago

I never bought into the North Korean elite hackers for this reason, the country has already a lot of technological issues at the moment and having an hacker army in these conditions would be quite a feat.

klibertp 9y ago
I don't know, on the one hand, NK is objectively behind other nations, but on the other hand, it's still a nation-state, with millions of subjects and complete freedom in shaping their policies. They did manage to build something resembling nuclear weapon without help from outside...
- realusername 9y ago
  Yes indeed but it took them a very long time to build some and we have a lot of traces of NK trying to get intelligence data about nuclear weapons, on the other hand, I've never seen anything which could indicate that they built a proper hacking army (not just an army of scammers to get more money).
  - lern_too_spel 9y ago
    > I've never seen anything which could indicate that they built a proper hacking army Google for Bureau 121 and 91 Office. Just because this article is about a programmer who mostly cracked software doesn't mean that other programmers with other focus areas don't exist.
  - Can_Not 9y ago
    Could thier army not be composed of 1,000 technically inclined cyber-scammers and 10 "proper hackers"?
- toomanybeersies 9y ago
  They had help from Pakistan at the start of the nuclear program.
chatmasta 9y ago
They can pay foreign nationals to hack for them.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

lern_too_spel 9y ago

What about the Sony hack required extreme sophistication? The GoP's original emails were ignored because they seemed like people who didn't know what they were doing. The source IPs were from a North Korean business in China. The malware matched what had previously only been used against South Korean banks, also from North Korean IPs. The reason the North Korean source IPs were seen accessing GoP's Facebook page and the compromised systems was due to sloppiness on the part of the attacker. What motive does anyone else have to demand either that The Interview not be released or that the ending be modified so that Kim's death wasn't "too happy?"

crdoconnor 9y ago
>What other motive do you have for a Sony hack where the perpetrators demand either that The Interview not be released or that the ending be modified so that Kim's death wasn't "too happy?" That Lulzsec are engaged in a game of misdirection? I've never found "Malware X was used in attack Y" or "it came from these IP addresses owned by Z" to ever be a convincing argument for attribution. Whereas I'm fairly easily convinced that the party responsible for the hack would prefer it if the FBI believes that the real attacker is outside of their jurisdiction so they don't come knocking on their door. The fact that North Korea is everybody's favourite bogeyman from the CIA down makes them a convenient mark. North Korea also has a habit of admitting to and bragging about military attacks whereas this time they just said "wasn't us, good job though guys". I'm not entirely sure what motive they'd have for denying the fact that they revealed a bunch of movie star salaries when most people think it was them anyhow.
- lern_too_spel 9y ago
  > North Korea also has a habit of admitting to and bragging about military attacks They still claim no involvement in the death of Kim Jong Nam and the destruction of Korean Air Flight 858. You're confusing overt military actions with covert actions against civilian targets. Of course they will loudly boast about the former. Boasting about computer attacks that can help attribute other covert attacks is too stupid even for DPRK. > I've never found "Malware X was used in attack Y" or "it came from these IP addresses owned by Z" to ever be a convincing argument for attribution. That's just the publicly released evidence, which is enough to draw a conclusion. You think somebody who is doing it for the lulz wouldn't then brag about doing it for the lulz on IRC? That happens every other time, which is one reason why your explanation is less plausible.