Crouching cyber Hidden Cobra: US warns Nork hackers are at it again with new software nasty The FBI and US Homeland Security have issued an alert about a new strain of malware infecting American corporate systems and stealing sensitive data. The remote access trojan (RAT), dubbed Fallchill, is the work of a North Korean hacking group called Hidden Cobra, which some at US-CERT believe was responsible for the WannaCry …
> For a country with low PC penetration and a pitiful internet architecture, North Korea punches above its weight when it comes to hacking, if attribution claims turn out to be correct.
Whether it turns out to be correct or not, it makes perfect sense for them to take advantage of the asymmetry. Who is going to hack their critical systems and steal their sensitive data when they do not have any?
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Enough with this neocon BS, Nork, China, Russia, Iran whatever is cyber-scary-flavour of the month. Have the geniuses at Homeland Security ever considered not keeping sensitive data on a 'computer' connected to the Internet. 'Hidden Cobra' .. just who is this fable aimed at, the kind of people who think the Bourne Identity' is a documentary. Here's how Kim Yong-il deals with leaks :)
It seems every time there is a new nasty making the rounds the ferals spout off about the Norks. Given there are many who have the requisite skills world wide, I would not be surprised that the real source was a group out of France (to pick a random country) as it to be actually from the Norks. Also, most hacks are ultimately about getting money illegally by some means. Also, I would look at the location of the targets for a clue as to the origin. It is easier to mimic someone the more the attacker shares culturally with the target.
Computer security is not conceptually difficult however execution can be very difficult. A well done spearphishing attack can be hard to block as it relies on looking reasonably legitimate to the target. Even if the target is well trained and normally very alert, one mistake can undo all the security measures in the world.
The rest of the world should get together and just pull the plug on North Korea's Internet access. Only government actors pretty much have Internet access there, and they don't use it for anything good. So boot them off the Internet until they get a reasonable government and learn to play nice with others.
"... concentrates on infiltrating networks in India, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, and so on."
I'm trying to spot the logical sequence to fit "... and so on".
Countries with an "n" in them (or not), countries on the Asian seaboard (or not), Chinese allied states (or not), Western allied states (or not), countries that don't speak English - cowabunga! A pattern!
The North Koreans are Koreans like the South Koreans. Literacy for 2000 or more years.
Plus they consider themselves still at war with the US and the south. Their military has very serious amounts of artillery, special operations units, submarines and even some Mig29s.
As with any serious military, they have a competent long-range reconnaissance capability which does all sorts of nefarious electronic things. Just like every other serious power does. Not just hacking.
Finally, we should refrain from believing all the BS fed to us by our own media about North Korea. Some of it was clearly hyperbolic. For example, they seem to have successfully latched onto the Chinese economic miracle. A lot of things which have "made in China" printed on, must be suspected to be actually made in North Korea.
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