North Korea's internet appears to be under mass cyber attack

[babylonsister]

http://www.vox.com/2014/12/22/7433873/north-korea-internet-down


North Korea's internet appears to be under mass cyber attack

Updated by Max Fisher on December 22, 2014, 11:10 a.m. ET

https://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/cjJBIilu9QubXq-XHcZxzPv9hSE=/0x31:2500x1698/755x504/assets.sbnation.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/44385878/comment_9Cyj8TKSiVXqyG4khoau2u5357oWamxA.0.0.jpg
Kim Jong Un inspects "new" military technology made by unit 1501 of the Korean People's Army in this 2013 photo. KCNA


Internet connectivity between North Korea and the outside world, though never robust to begin with, is currently suffering one of its worst outages in recent memory, suggesting that the country may be enduring a mass cyber attack a few days after President Obama warned the US would launch a "proportional response" to North Korea's hack against Sony.

"I haven't seen such a steady beat of routing instability and outages in KP before," said Doug Madory, director of Internet analysis at the cybsecurity firm Dyn Research, according to Martyn Williams of the excellent blog North Korea Tech. Madory explained, "Usually there are isolated blips, not continuous connectivity problems. I wouldn't be surprised if they are absorbing some sort of attack presently."

While it's entirely possible that this is due to run-of-the-mill maintenance or technical issues, it's hard to miss that the outage comes just days after President Obama condemned North Korea as responsible for the massive cyberattack against Sony and pledged a "proportional" US response.

snip//

It's also possible that China is attempting to shut down North Korea's internet connections with the outside world, perhaps so as to avoid future North Korean attacks that would embarrass China. While China is North Korea's patron, it also typically seeks to tamp down the Hermit Kingdom's provocations, which Beijing rightly sees as bad for Chinese interests.

Vigilante hackers could also theoretically be responsible, perhaps in an attempt to punish North Korea for the Sony attack, although past efforts by groups such as Anonymous have been spectacular failures.

While it's possible that North Korea is preemptively closing off its own internet access, hoping to prevent or preempt any US reprisal attacks, that would not explain why connectivity occasionally pops back up, suggesting that either an outage or a deliberate attack is the cause.

[daredtowork]

1. My money is on Anonymous. Lol. nt

[shraby]

2. Could be a little bit of all of them working independently and achieving

greater damage.

[L0oniX]

7. Everybody ping 175.45.176.0 ...right now!

[arely staircase]

3. did they actually think they could beat us in a hacking war?

Or anything.

[L0oniX]

8. Here's just a sample of independents going on the attack...

http://www.reddit.com/r/netsec/comments/2pwqhp/scans_of_north_korean_ip_space/

I love this comment:[–]hex_m_hell 1 point 23 hours ago
Yeah, pretty sure they aren't going to deport you for trial in NK. If the US government catches you they'll probably just offer you a job.
Edit: then again, if they don't catch you then you're really the one they want to hire.

[louis-t]

4. I always thought a useful computer program

would be one that causes a hacker's computer to self destruct if they attempt to hack into someone else's system. Fantasy, I know.

[L0oniX]

5. 175.45.176.0 to 175.45.179.255 & 210.52.109.0 to 210.52.109.255

Of course they can proxy to evade blockage.

[True Blue Door]

6. The good news is that filmmakers have found a formula for massive publicity

that will likely drastically increase profits for the film: Piss off an incredibly sensitive foreign dictatorship, or even domestic political concern.

If I were a rich film financier, I'd be churning out movies denouncing the Chinese government, Saudi Arabia, Vladimir Putin, anti-abortionists, gun nuts, the Republican Party, and do it in a way calculated to maximize the provocation.

Remember how much money Fahrenheit 9/11 made after they tried to suppress it?

[GreatGazoo]

9. South Korea holding drills now to address hacking threats to nuclear power plants

http://thestack.com/south-korean-power-plants-cyber-attack-drills-hack-221214

[Ykcutnek]

10. Our hackers are probably doing this on their lunch break, just for fun.

LOL.

[VanillaRhapsody]

11. ours will eat their lunch

[A HERETIC I AM]

12. Probably just this old dude out for a stroll;

[applegrove]

13. The US should just flood the North Korea internet

with facts about how the cult of personality works. Deprogram the people as it were.

[nc4bo]

14. Real time global hacker traffic link inside.

http://map.ipviking.com/

Lots of activities from China, btw.

[daredtowork]

17. OMG that map is like watching WWIII!

I glanced at it right when china launched 20,000 ssh attack at Saint Louis - it was like a zillion pink nukes coming in.

btw, is that level of activity unusual?

[Lee-Lee]

15. What, for all 4 dozen well connected high government officials

99.9999% of citizens there have probably never even used a computer, much less even seen the Internet.

[Rstrstx]

19. That's what I was thinking

I just figured a rat had gnawed into their one phone line.

[Warren DeMontague]

20. Seriously, most of them dont even have power.

[randome]

16. "OK, Google..."

"Damn! The Internet's down again!"


[hr][font color="blue"][center]You should never stop having childhood dreams.[/center][/font][hr]

[lpbk2713]

18. Dear Leader is getting emails from Nigeria.

... wanting to share a Million $$ with him.


BWAHAHA