Is It Time To Take North Korea’s Cyber Weaponry Seriously?

Analysts say cyber capabilities have become a key asset in North Korea’s war chest. Pyongyang’s increasingly bold attacks in the virtual space have come in tandem with the hermit nation’s rapidly progressing ballistic missile and nuclear programs and some say that it’s time this is taken very seriously.

The rogue regime has used cyber attacks for a wide range of purposes including hacking adversaries like South Korea and pilfering money. North Korea’s hackers have been accused of carrying out some of the most audacious cyber attacks of the past few years, from siphoning millions of dollars to stealing state secrets.

“North Korea’s cyber weapons are as destructive as its conventional weapons,” Lim Jong-in, a cybersecurity professor at Korea University, told CNN. “Tomahawk missiles can paralyze a major country’s power grid and financial system. So do North Korea’s cyber weapons.” Lim continued, saying: “Cyber experts say North Korea should be ranked among the top 5 in the world. I believe North Korea can steal anything they want through cyber espionage. No country is safe from its cyber espionage.”

In the latest revelation, a member of the South Korean ruling party said Tuesday that North Korea stole classified military documents from a South Korean Defense Ministry database in September 2016. They included a document that included plans to “decapitate” the North Korean leadership.-CNN

But that isn’t all. Cybersecurity firm FireEye said Tuesday that it detected and stopped an attack on US electric companies by people with links to the North Korean government. The skill of these hackers is actually impressive considering they live in a country where the internet is heavily regulated by the government. The citizens living under Kim Jong-Un’s dictatorship only have access to a government-run, heavily censored intranet rather than the full depths of the world wide web. Yet those restrictions have not stopped the hackers from improving their abilities.

“North Korea almost certainly has the capability to conduct disruptive and potentially destructive attacks, as well as more traditional cyber espionage operations,” Bryce Boland, the chief technology officer for Asia-Pacific at FireEye, told CNN. “North Korea has little connectivity and relatively limited reliance on technology, making it less vulnerable to attacks,” he said.

In February 2016, $101 million was fraudulently transferred out of the Bangladesh central bank’s account at the New York Federal Reserve and eventually made its way to the Philippines. Researchers found that the hackers responsible for the theft carefully routed their signal through France, South Korea, and Taiwan to set up their attack server, but made a critical mistake that established a connection to North Korea. Nonetheless, most of the funds have not been recovered.

Analysts also say that North Korea has been preparing similar operations targeting cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, as international sanctions make it harder for North Korea to use the dollar.

North Korea’s advancements in their weapons is concerning enough, but add in the actual real threat of a cyber attack, and we could experience a major disruption to our way of life.

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Author: Mac Slavo
Views: Read by 24 people
Date: October 11th, 2017
Website: www.SHTFplan.com

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Kim Jong Nam Assassination Caught On Tape

Chilling closed-circuit security footage has emerged of the killing of Kim Jong Nam last week, showing two attackers took less than three seconds to carry out the assault on the half-brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. As the WSJ first reported, the video clips from security cameras were obtained by a Japanese media outlet and posted by a third party on YouTube.

The clip shot inside Kuala Lumpur International Airport shows Kim arriving alone at a busy, well-lit departures hall shortly before 9 a.m. on Feb. 13. Police said he had been in Malaysia about a week, and intended to take a 10:50 a.m. AirAsia flight back to his home in Macau. From an airport mall area, Kim, wearing loafers, light-blue jeans, a sport coat and a flat cap, and with a black backpack slung over his right shoulder, strides past three police officers into a crowded departures hall.

Once he arrives at the entrance of the departure lobby, he stops momentarily to look up at the flight schedules. After checking the flight schedules, he then moves to a nearby self-check-in kiosk.

In a flash, the next scene shows two women approaching Kim, one in a whitetop appearing to lunge as she places her hand over Kim’s face. There is a flurry of movement, then after a matter of two or three seconds, the three break apart. The woman in white - whose hair and dress resembles a woman dressed in a top with an “LOL” slogan who Malaysian police said was connected to the killing - walks briskly away.

Japan-based Fuji TV aired the video compilation late Sunday night. A spokeswoman declined to say how it obtained the footage, citing an obligation to protect its source. The video has since been circulated by Japanese and other media, and was viewed hundreds of thousands of times on YouTube before being removed.

As the WSJ explains, in the next clip, Kim is standing at one of the kiosks when a person that police believe was Siti Aisyah, a 25-year-old Indonesian woman who authorities said was working as a masseuse at a spa in Kuala Lumpur, approaches on his left, getting his attention. A second later, a person police believe to be Doan Thi Huong, a 28-year-old Vietnamese woman, swoops in behind Mr. Kim. She reaches up with both arms and wraps them around Mr. Kim’s head, appearing to either hold a cloth to his face or to hold him in place.

It isn’t clear what action, if any, Ms. Aisyah takes. Mr. Kim’s backpack slips off from his shoulder and he stumbles backward as both women then slide away quickly but calmly in opposite directions. Mr. Kim appears to watch Ms. Aisyah departing, seemingly never having seen Ms. Huong. He stands motionless for several seconds. Huong’s contact with Mr. Kim lasted 2.33 seconds, according a timer added to the video compilation.

The clip of the assault near the kiosks is blurrier than the previous clips, which police told The Wall Street Journal was because a camera closer to the scene wasn’t working. They said another camera that would have caught the assailants at a departure point was also out of order. 

A subsequent clip, of better quality from a different camera, shows Kim walking quickly to the nearby customer-service desk. There he tells an airport employee that two women had just wiped a wet cloth on his face, and that he feels dizzy, according to police, who have said they are also investigating whether a spray was used in the assault. The airport worker escorts him out to the hallway where Mr. Kim speaks animatedly with the police he had passed minutes earlier. Mr. Kim repeatedly motions toward his face.

The next clip shows a far less crowded area downstairs from the departures hall, where a police officer and an airport employee calmly escort Mr. Kim to a small, glass-fronted airport medical clinic. Mr. Kim, now moving less steadily, enters.

An unspecified amount of time passes, and the next clip shows Mr. Kim on a stretcher at the clinic, being moved. Police said he had a seizure, and medical workers sent him to Putrajaya Hospital. Mr. Kim died en route.

Local police arrested Ms. Aisyah and Ms. Huong last week for possible involvement in the case. Neither has been charged, and both are being detained by police for one week. Police have also arrested a North Korean man and a Malaysian man suspected of being involved in the assault, and say they are searching for others, including several North Korean men.

As reported last week, police have said they believe Kim was poisoned during the assault, but are awaiting confirmation from autopsy results. Malaysia’s health minister said results could be released as early as Wednesday. 

According to SCMP, Malaysia shot back at North Korea’s allegations that authorities were purposely delaying the investigation, including the release of Kim Jong-nam’s remains. “North Korea can say anything, but, as far as we are concerned, we follow the legal requirements of our country,” Noor Rashid said.

Pyongyang is behind the death, a South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman alleged Sunday. “The government assumes that North Korea’s regime is behind the incident,” Defense Ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-hee said, adding that there would be no further comment while Malaysian police conduct their investigation.