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https://phrack.org/issues/72/7_md#article https://phrack.org/issues/72/7_md#article
by jn78 1y ago
https://phrack.org/issues/72/7_md#article https://phrack.org/issues/72/7_md#article
- msbhvn 1y agoWoah, read the timeline at the top of this. The fire happened the very day the government ordered onsite inspection was supposed to start due to Chinese/NK hacking.
- yieldcrv 1y agoSo, someone figured out how to do backups
- southernplaces7 1y agoThey certainly will after this.
- AnimalMuppet 1y agoYeah, this whole thing smells. Who has the incentive to do this, though? China/North Korea? Or someone in South Korea trying to cover up how bad they messed up? Does adding this additional mess on top mean they looked like they messed up less? (And for that to be true, how horrifically bad does the hack have to be?)
- mattmaroon 1y agoIt might be different “they”s. Putting on my tinfoil hat, whoever was going to be in hot water over the hack burns it down and now the blame shifts from them to whoever manages G-drive and don’t have a backup plan. Not saying I believe this (or even know enough to have an opinion), but it’s always important to not anthropomorphize a large organization. The government isn’t one person (even in totalitarian societies) but an organization that contains large numbers of people who may all have their own motivations.
- keepamovin 1y agoIf there was shady behavior, I doubt it’s about a cyber hack. More likely probably the current administration covering their tracks after their purges. Alternate hypothesis: cloud storage provided doing the hard sell. Hahaha :)
- mattmaroon 1y ago“It’d be a real shame if something happened to your data center…”
- conductr 1y ago> whoever was going to be in hot water over the hack burns it down and now the blame shifts from them to whoever manages G-drive and don’t have a backup plan. LG is SK firm and manufacturer of hacked hardware and also the batteries that caught fire. Not sure it’s a solid theory just something I took note of while thinking the same
- mattmaroon 1y agoInteresting but same concept applies to organizations.
- jftr 1y agoPhrack's timeline may read like it, but it wasn't an onsite inspection due to hacking, but a scheduled maintenance to replace the overdue UPS, hence battery-touching involved. Even the image they linked just says "scheduled maintenance."
- dmix 1y agoSupply chain interceptions can happen for batteries and other electronics being used.
- danudey 1y agoSo right after the investigation was announced, they suddenly scheduled a UPS battery replacement which happened to start a fire big enough to destroy the entire data centre and all data or evidence? Yeah, that's way less suspicious, thanks for clearing that up.
- naruhodo 1y agoMy mind initially went to a government cover-up, but then: > 27th of September 2025, The fire is believed to have been caused while replacing Lithium-ion batteries. The batteries were manufactured by LG, the parent company of LG Uplus (the one that got hacked by the APT). Could the battery firmware have been sabotaged by the hacker to start the fire?
- PapaPalpatine 1y agoThat's exactly where my mind went!
- lazystar 1y agothis was a plot in a Mr. Robot episode, heh. Life imitating art?
- asimovDev 1y agowas there a battery hacking episode? I can't remember the show anymore, might be due in for a rewatch it seems.
- trhway 1y agoSuch coincidences do happen. 20 years ago the plane which was carrying all the top brass of the Russian Black Sea Fleet as well as the Fleet’s accounting documentation for inspection to Moscow burst in flames and fell to the ground while trying to get airborne. Being loaded with fuel it immediately became one large infernal fireball. By some miracle no top brass suffered even minor burn/injury while all the accounting documentation burned completely.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- southernplaces7 1y agoOne hell of an act of God that... Believable though, given the consistent transparency and low corruption in the Russian government's administration.
- IAmBroom 1y agoGolf clap, lasting several minutes. Bravo, old boy.
- madaxe_again 1y agoQuite a few of those top brass years later shot themselves in the head several times before jumping from a window. Anyway, shoe production has never been better.
- postsantum 1y ago"NK hackers" reminds me "my homework was eaten by a dog". It's always NK hackers that steal data/crypto and there is absolutely no possibility to do something with it or restore the data, because you know they transfer the info on a hard disk and they shoot it with an AD! Like that general! How do we know it's NK? Because there are comments in north-korean language, duh! Why are you asking, are you russian bot or smt??
- bboygravity 1y agoThe good news is: there are still off-site backups. The bad news is: they're in North Korea.
- IAmBroom 1y ago"Your Holiness! I have terrible news! Jesus has returned!" "But that's a blessed event? How could that be terrible?" "He appeared in Salt Lake City."
- j3th9n 1y agoFigures.
- jddj 1y agoSilver lining: it's likely that technically there is a backup (section 1.3). It's just in NK or china. Yikes.
- 63stack 1y agoThis is the first time I see this site, who/what is phrack? A hacker group?
- AnimalMuppet 1y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrack https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrack
- Imustaskforhelp 1y agoNot sure why people downvoted you as I actually read the wikipedia and learnt a lot about phrack and how their name is sort of inspired by "phreaking,anarchy and cracking" and I think thus the name ph-ra-ck.
- fiatpandas 1y agoIt’s a zine. Been around since the 80’s. Hackers / security industry types read and publish to it.
- godelski 1y agoFor more context, the name derives from "phone hacking" or phreacking. You got your legends like Captain Crunch and many of you big tech players were into this stuff when they were younger, such as Woz This was also often tied to a big counter culture movement. Which one interesting thing is that many of those people now define the culture. I guess not too unlike how many hippies changed when they grew up
- NKosmatos 1y agoThanks for this, it gives a lot of extra info and content compared to the original article.
- neilv 1y agoWhen you see a chronology like that, you don't keep trying to speak truth to power. You delete your data, trash your gear, and hop on a bus, to start over in some other city, in a different line of work.
- AnimalMuppet 1y agos/city/country/
- maldonad0 1y agoAnd with no technology! Perhaps become some kind of ascetic monk.
- baobun 1y ago> 27th of September 2025, The fire is believed to have been caused while replacing Lithium-ion batteries. The batteries were manufactured by LG, the parent company of LG Uplus (the one that got hacked by the APT). Compromised batteries or battery controllers?
- lwhi 1y agoWitness A said, “It appears that the fire started when a spark flew during the process of replacing the uninterruptible power supply,” and added, “Firefighters are currently out there putting out the fire. I hope that this does not lead to any disruption to the national intelligence network, including the government’s 24 channel.”[1] [1] https://mbiz.heraldcorp.com/article/10584693 https://mbiz.heraldcorp.com/article/10584693
- rawgabbit 1y agoHow large is this UPS that a fire can bring down all 96 servers? This story is really unbelievable.
- sleepybrett 1y agodepends on how many batteries were in the facility, if one goes up chances are the rest go too. Can halon systems not put out lithium fires?
- RandomBacon 1y agoI'm not sure about South Korea, but in the U.S., halon started to be phased out in 1994 due to its ozone-depleting characteristics. I believe new facilities use CO2. I'm guessing lithium-ion batteries were not a factor years ago when those decisions were made.
- waste_monk 1y ago>Can halon systems not put out lithium fires? As the other commenter said, Halon hasn't been a thing for a fair while, but inert gas fire suppression systems in general are still popular. I would expect it wouldn't be sufficient for a lithium ion battery fire - you'd temporarily displace the oxygen, sure, but the conditions for fire would still exist - as soon as enough nitrogen (or whatever suppressant gas is in use) dissipates, it'd start back up again. Also as I understand thermal runaway is self-sustaining, since the lithium ion batteries have a limited capacity to provide their own oxygen (something to do with the cathode breaking down?), so it might continue burning even while the area is mostly flooded with inert gas. I believe it would be similar to an EV car fire, that is, you'd have to flood the area with water and wait for it to cool down enough that thermal runaway stops. Maybe they can do better these days with encapsulating agents but I'd still expect the rack housing the UPS to be a write-off.
- FergusArgyll 1y ago> KIM is heavily working on ToyBox for Android. 2 HN front page articles in 1!
- ivape 1y agoThis sounds like a real whodunit.
- FergusArgyll 1y agoWell, I think we know "who"dunnit it's more of a how-dunnit & are-they-still-in-dunnit
- Imustaskforhelp 1y agoOhh side note but this was the journalist group which was blocked by proton The timing as well is very suspicious and I think that there can be a lot of discussion about this Right now, I am wondering about the name most tbh which might seem silly but "APT down - The North Korean files" It seems that APT means in this case advanced persistent threat but I am not sure what they mean by Apt Down, like the fact that it got shut down by their journalism or-? I am sorry if this may seem naive and on a serious note this raises so many questions...
- taneq 1y agoFor a moment there I was wondering if “apt down” was a typo and you meant “ifdown”. ;)
- exogenousdata 1y ago“APT Down” is likely a reference to a popular Korean drinking game. https://www.thetakeout.com/1789352/korea-apt-drinking-game-rules/ https://www.thetakeout.com/1789352/korea-apt-drinking-game-r...
- Shank 1y agoThough this is far from the most important points of this article, why do even the article’s authors defend Proton after having their accounts suspended, and after having seemingly a Korean intelligence official warn them that they weren’t secure? Even if they’re perfectly secure they clearly do not have the moral compass people believe they have.
- Levitating 1y agoWhat other service would you use?
- 1oooqooq 1y agonot use email in this day and age?
- Levitating 1y agoOkay, how would you approach companies for responsible discolusure.
- 1oooqooq 1y agothreat email as push notification. "here's a link"
- georgethedrab 1y agothanks for the info, canceling proton rn
- 1oooqooq 1y agoproton is alternative to gmail still. you replace nsa and ad networks with nsa only. it's a win.
- 8cvor6j844qw_d6 1y agoCurrently, still on Proton for its aliasing service but keeping my eye out for a suitable replacement candidate. Thankfully I made the right choice to stay on Bitwarden instead of moving to Proton Pass.
- nicman23 1y agoholy shit lol. this is naked gun level incompetence