4 ms·

Unless they, you know, have internet access, some hardware to play around with and the ability to read.

by EliRivers 14y ago

nwh 14y ago
For the most part they don't though.
- EliRivers 14y ago
  So this is unlikely to be the work of some punk kid in a village two hundred miles from Pyongyang. I suppose there is the one in a million chance that the DPRK government might have arranged some kind of group that does have internet access and a mandate to cause problems for the country they're at war with.
- zokier 14y ago
  You don't need most parts. You need a handful of people.
jmsduran 14y ago
It is more likely that an elite group in Pyongyang has internet and computer access, with a subset of that group given more privileges to engineer & deploy malware/etc. Given that though, I find it rather hard to believe the North Korean government could pull off a cyber-attack like this all by themselves, especially when you take into account the effect of international sanctions and the North's very outdated technology (I remember reading they still use a 1960's crank-phone for communication through the DMZ). My best bet is that the Chinese government gave them significant assistance in launching this attack.
- socillion 14y ago
  There has been some reporting on state-funded North Korean hackers, e.g. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/01/us-korea-north-hackers-idUSTRE7501U420110601 http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/01/us-korea-north-hac... No clue how much truth is behind it, I just remember reading about it a while back.
- EliRivers 14y ago
  Outdated technology like this? http://timenewsfeed.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/computers.jpg http://timenewsfeed.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/computers.jp... DPRK has modern computers. DPRK has internet connections. It has smart people who did well in maths class and know how to program. It has very tight control on all of this, but it has it. Hell, if they needed some more off the shelf PCs, they could just wander across the border into China and buy some; the train crossing into Dandong was full of DPRK citizens going into China.

Unless they, you know, have internet access, some hardware to play around with and the ability to read.

nwh 14y ago

For the most part they don't though.

EliRivers 14y ago
So this is unlikely to be the work of some punk kid in a village two hundred miles from Pyongyang. I suppose there is the one in a million chance that the DPRK government might have arranged some kind of group that does have internet access and a mandate to cause problems for the country they're at war with.
zokier 14y ago
You don't need most parts. You need a handful of people.

jmsduran 14y ago

It is more likely that an elite group in Pyongyang has internet and computer access, with a subset of that group given more privileges to engineer & deploy malware/etc. Given that though, I find it rather hard to believe the North Korean government could pull off a cyber-attack like this all by themselves, especially when you take into account the effect of international sanctions and the North's very outdated technology (I remember reading they still use a 1960's crank-phone for communication through the DMZ). My best bet is that the Chinese government gave them significant assistance in launching this attack.

socillion 14y ago
There has been some reporting on state-funded North Korean hackers, e.g. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/01/us-korea-north-hackers-idUSTRE7501U420110601 http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/01/us-korea-north-hac... No clue how much truth is behind it, I just remember reading about it a while back.
EliRivers 14y ago
Outdated technology like this? http://timenewsfeed.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/computers.jpg http://timenewsfeed.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/computers.jp... DPRK has modern computers. DPRK has internet connections. It has smart people who did well in maths class and know how to program. It has very tight control on all of this, but it has it. Hell, if they needed some more off the shelf PCs, they could just wander across the border into China and buy some; the train crossing into Dandong was full of DPRK citizens going into China.