back to article Attack of the CYBER NORKS! Pyongyang in frontal assault online

As the Korean peninsula flirts with supposed nuclear war, North Korea has been accused of launching cyber-attacks on banks and TV broadcasters in the south. Investigators in Seoul said Pyongyang was behind the hacking of tens of thousands of computers last month. Tension is already running high on the peninsula after North …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    'no reputable analysts believe that the DPRK has yet managed to develop a nuclear warhead for its missiles'

    Are these the same reputable sources that sait Iraq was full of WMD ?

    1. JonP
      Mushroom

      No, the reputable sources said Iraq had bugger all WMDs.

      The problem was down how the reputable sources findings were interpereted / ignored / manipulated ...

    2. Psyx
      FAIL

      Source != Analyst

  2. Gray
    Devil

    No real surprise here ...

    "Although Kim Jong-un normally likes to broadcast videos of himself trying out the latest Nork military tech, Pyongyang has not yet commented on the cyberattack claims."

    Video of the Exalted One launching a cyber-attack upon the dread enemies of the People have been delayed until Photoshop Brigade is able to emulate Exalted One's fingers in proper touch-typing position. Attempts at development of actual touch-typing skills resulted in unfortunate execution of failed instructor.

    1. andreas koch
      Happy

      @ Gray - Re: No real surprise here ...

      You somewhat beat me to it.

  3. andreas koch
    Thumb Up

    Mr Kim Jong-un will be shown later

    >

    Although Kim Jong-un normally likes to broadcast videos of himself trying out the latest Nork military tech, Pyongyang has not yet commented on the cyberattack claims.

    <

    North Korea's Intelligence Service has

    (due to this article: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/09/feature_ten_sexy_computers_roundup/)

    found, that the formerly prepared propaganda video of their divine leader initiating the cyber-attack using a Sinclair ZX80 would be somewhat outdated. Photoshopping a Commodore Amiga 512 into the shots takes a bit of time, but once it;s done, we'll be able to be properly frightened by North Korea's IT-power.

    I hope it will be done by the same director who did the Space video, which is now training material at the Bollywood Film Academy as an example that cheesyness can, in fact, be overdone.

  4. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

    Think out of the box .... and move on into virgin fields for communicating and cohabiting

    Writing in Korea Joongang, Chae In-taek said:

    "South Korea cannot cope with unpredictable and sophisticated provocations from North Korea with a bureaucratic, rigid mindset.

    "National security cannot be assured through an outdated system. We must come up with an innovative security system fast."

    Would that be a clone/pirate of, and similar to a creative cyber security system? Or is that altogether another vehicle/platform/principled principal program with untouchable, and therefore quite novel protocols and alien means of delivering virtual protection to digital assets easily compromised and astutely anonymously attacked and actively artistically assaulted?

    amanfromMars …. having a chat on http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/04/verizon-rigmaiden-aircard/

    “An elitist stream of consciousness does not constitute a rebuttal.” ….. Sean W.

    I agree, Sean W. Methinks the best of them are decidedly intelligently designed to encourages further constructive thought for future creative transparent dealogue in/between/with/within smarter beings/SMARTR Virtual Machinery? Although/And in others, raise doubts about it and IT’s Media Abilities to prove the premise true and real, via virtual means and memes with ……. well, let us just call such Creative CyberSpace IT Command and Control with Computers and Communications, NEUKlearer HyperRadioProActive and Quantum Communication Control System ITERative ….. Entangling.

    It has been just one of those busy enough days today, and tomorrow promises to be even busier. Happy days. :-)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Think out of the box .... and move on into virgin fields for communicating and cohabiting

      My kingdom for an "ignore user" option.

      1. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

        Silent Tools are as Useful and Useless as Fools

        My kingdom for an "ignore user" option. ....DijitulSupport Posted Thursday 11th April 2013 09:20 GMT

        I don't think that very clever at all, DijitulSupport, whenever it would just maintain one's ignorance in something which one doesn't understand. And that be a really weird choice if that to be ignored is well worth understanding.

        It would though, and quite conveniently too, enable one to conceal one's lack of intelligence with the exercise of such an "ignore user" option.

        Here is a not dissimilar option to consider whenever one is at a loss for intelligent shared thoughts ..... "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt." .... Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens]

  5. Beau
    Holmes

    Well, well, well.

    "Investigators traced the attack on the banks to six computers in North Korea, which had accessed the banks’ networks more than 1,590 times since June 2012."

    It's a good job someone had looked at those logs during the last 10 months, otherwise goodness knows what might have happened.

  6. cyberdemon Silver badge
    Mushroom

    For a country where the Internet is completely banned...

    Isn't it odd that they know anything at all about "cyber-warfare"?

    Hopefully they subcontracted it, or the south koreans are just crap at security. Otherwise what else do they have more expertise in than we anticipated?

    1. Peter Murphy
      Stop

      Re: For a country where the Internet is completely banned...

      North Korea probably has quite a few agents over in South Korea, some with IT and technical nous. They're not being controlled all the time, and many have the initiative to research how to hack computers.

      South Korea may be an easier place to hack than anticipated. It's not that the country's bad at security; it's quite good, but...

      All this goes back to 1990s, when Korea developed its own encryption technology, SEED, to secure e-commerce transactions. Consumers were supplied with a digital certificate, protected by a personal password, for any online transaction in order to prove their identity. For websites to be able to verify these certificates, the technology requires users to install a Microsoft ActiveX plug-in.

      But the problem with ActiveX is that it is only supported by Microsoft Internet Explorer. Despite the concerns even at the time, the South Korean Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) mandated the use of SEED, and thus, ActiveX and digital security certificates.

      After the mandate, web developers not only optimised the banking and e-commerce websites to work with IE, but all websites, thus leaving the entire country a slave to this Microsoft browser. The worst affected were the consumers with operating systems like Apple's OS X and Linux, which do not support Internet Explorer."

      So you have a monoculture of supporting just one browser, as opposed to the heterogenous mix outside South Korea. Monocultures are ecologically vulnerable. And Active X doesn't have a good reputation in the security community.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Er... how about...

    Just cutting the data cable to NORK off?

    ;-D

    (I know, still routed via CN etc., the beauty of robust net unfortunately).

    1. Crazy Operations Guy
      Boffin

      Re: Er... how about...

      You just need to set up a BGP router to advertise KP's AS number and you will receive all traffic destined for their network (Including replies for sessions they created). You could then just drop all those packets and it will effectively drop KP off the internet (unless your local router is closer to KP's router than the dummy is).

      China performed a similar attack a few years back against AS number associated with US companies.

  8. mIRCat
    Mushroom

    Could it be!?

    "Although Kim Jong-un normally likes to broadcast videos of himself trying out the latest Nork military tech, Pyongyang has not yet commented on the cyberattack claims."

    Could it be that the illustrious Un is just a script kiddie and they fear we'll find out?

    Because I assume he's smart enough to push a button.

  9. John Savard

    Good News?

    Maybe this will be the start of a new era in computing. Perhaps South Korea will abandon SEED, and even develop its own highly secure operating system to finally put an end to all the shenanigans on the Internet.

  10. Herby

    There is one hope though...

    Maybe the missile is a dud, and the warhead blows up on the pad, with its atomic devastation. Maybe there is hope after all.

    Now how do I make the missile land on Pyongyang......tap tappy tap... (BOFH at work...)

    1. Yag

      Re: There is one hope though...

      Unfortunately, it is probable that NK did not developped one-point safe nukes... so the accidental explosion is a possibility.

      Still hoping it would occurs as far as populated areas as possible.

  11. David Glasgow

    Writing in Korea Joongang, Chae In-taek said:

    .... They can't cope with attacks from miscreants with a rigid and bureaucratic mindset? What, sort of like a whole Nation of people with Asperger syndrome?

    Maybe Gary McKinnon was a NORK spy under deep cover.

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