North Korea Too Underpowered and Inept to Launch Sophisticated Cyber Attack

a reply to: KnightLight

PC World:
Sony gets hacked again and again 2011

It's getting a bit old hat, but Sony's been hacked once again. Hacking group Lulzsec, which earlier had hacked the Sony Pictures website, released on Monday some 54 megabytes of source code from Sony's developer network website, as well as network maps from Sony BMG's New York offices.

"Konichiwa from LulzSec, Sony bastards!" the description of the torrent containing the data reads on torrent site The Pirate Bay. The group claims that it has hacked Sony six times, and refers to the score as "Hackers 16, Sony 0" -- likely a reference to the growing number of times the Japanese company has now been hacked.

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LMAO N.Korea!!!!

Get real.


U.S.

Edward Snowden: U.S., Israel ‘Co-Wrote’ Cyber Super Weapon Stuxnet

US-Israeli Stuxnet Cyber-attacks against Iran: “Act of War”

NATO research team calls Stuxnet attack on Iran an 'act of force'

Legal Experts: Stuxnet Attack on Iran Was Illegal ‘Act of Force’

An Unprecedented Look at Stuxnet, the World’s First Digital Weapon

Has the NSA Been Using the Heartbleed Bug as an Internet Peephole?

Senators Okay With Spying On Citizens, But Outraged It Happened To Congress

At Berkeley, Rand Paul Condemns NSA, CIA Spying

CIA Admits Spying On Senate Computers

Judge questions evidence on whether NSA spying is too broad

Congress Still Has No Idea How Much the NSA Spies on Americans

* Court Allowed NSA To Spy On All But 4 Countries

NSA monitored calls of 35 world leaders after US official handed over contacts

* Foreign Governments Consider Reverting To Typewriters To Thwart NSA Surveillance

Top senator: Obama didn't know of U.S. spying on Germany's leader

US escalates campaign against North Korea

Evidence in Sony hack attack suggests possible involvement by Iran, China or Russia, intel source says (LMAO!)

Judge Rules Obama's Abuse Of Executive Orders Is "Unconstitutional"


North Korea

North Korea denies hacking Sony, U.S. stands by its assertion

- - Now tell me who has a history of cyber-terrorism, uncheck & unauthorized access to 193 countries - - except: Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand?


Welcome to the 1st American “Cyber False-Flag”. . .

edit on 21-12-2014 by SurrenderingAmerica because: (no reason given)

I mean...let's face it...you can only fit so much data on a TRS-80 and a floppy floppy.

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One other thing.

Does anyone have the fbi official/agent's name that signed off on that report?



I'm interested.

originally posted by: SurrenderingAmerica
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One other thing.

Does anyone have the fbi official/agent's name that signed off on that report?



I'm interested.

I've had no luck digging into that type of information but I found this VERY interesting:

FBI.Gov
FBI Statement Before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
Washington, D.C. December 10, 2014

(cyber-security-enhancing-coordination-to-protect-the-financial-sector)

There are, however, a number of ways that Congress might seek to aid us in our efforts. In particular, I would like to enumerate three concerns that new legislation or amendments to existing legislation could address that would strengthen our ability to combat cyber threats, as follows:


1)Updating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act....
2)Data Breach Notifications....
3)Information Sharing....

a reply to: KnightLight

I, like you, have also struck out on obtaining that info.


However, in regards to your other statement. The new "Defense Secretary in waiting" : Ash Carter.
- - Yea, forgot about that, huh?



Well, Mr. 'Preventative strike', spoke about that very thing you're bringing up in his book. Creating more depts (among other batsh*t crazy 'tactics').

originally posted by: Xcathdra
a reply to: Willtell

To dismiss North Korea in this area is dangerous. N. Korea does have military units tasked for cyber operations and has had them for some time now.

N Korea does not have an military nor navy. If they were truly allies of Russia and China you would they would had everything updated and upgraded?


I would bet the majority of its air force is from WW2.

originally posted by: Willtell
So it seems the lie has traveled more than half way around the world while the truth is still trying to buy some shoes to put on since apparently according to some cyber experts NK is too primitive technologically to have done this deed.

Right...

According to foreign 'experts' who have next to no idea about North Korea's current internal structures; who aren't privy to North Korea's top secret information, and who aren't privy to the information of which the FBI holds in relation to the Sony case...

They may be experts in their fields, but no one can 100% state that North Korea lacks the ability to conduct comprehensive cyber attacks. North Korea has a top secret cyber warfare unit called Bureau 121, which falls under their military command. That in and of itself shows that North Korea has the means to conduct cyber warfare. Additionally, it is believed that anywhere from 15% to 35% of North Korea's GDP is spent on their military, meaning that North Korea likely does have more complicated weaponry than we, as Westerners, are led to believe.

Sorry, but i think these experts are looking at the situation through a simplified paradigm. Indeed, a North Korean defector, who used to work as a computer operator in Pyongyang says that North Korea does have the means to conduct cyber attacks, and that Bureau 121 is a force to be reckoned with.

Scant resources or not, a defector who once worked as a computer expert for the North Korean government says that it has a vast network of hackers devoted to cyberwarfare against perceived enemies of the Stalinist state.

Jang Se-yul, who defected from North Korea seven years ago, told CNN that he thinks there are 1,800 cyberwarriors in the agency stationed around the world. But he says even the agents themselves don't know how many others work for the secretive group, called Bureau 121, whose mission is to "conduct cyberattacks against overseas and enemy states."

...

Commenting generally on the North Korean government's hacking arsenal, Jang said he thinks the reclusive East Asian nation's cyberwarfare is more real and more dangerous than the regime's ability to launch a nuclear offensive -- even if it is the latter that has contributed to expansive sanctions, other penalties and the country's isolation on the world stage.

Said Jang, "This silent war -- the cyberwar -- has already begun without a single bullet fired."

...

Assuming some of the allegations are well-founded, some might question how or why a country that's so poor, with so few resources, would devote so much to cyberwarfare.

Jang, who says he is still in contact with at least one of Bureau 121's members, says the answer is simple: "Raising cyberagents is fairly cheap."

"The world has the wrong view of the North Korean state," he adds. "With that incorrect world view, North Korea was able to increase its
ability to launch cyberattacks."

Jang attended North Korea's military college for computer science, the University of Automation, and worked in information services for the government before defecting. He showed CNN reams of information he says was stolen by North Korean operatives from Bureau 121. The information taken from South Korean financial institutions, which Jang says he got from a Bureau 121 operation, appeared to list bank accounts, names and financial data.

Additionally, in the same article, director of Asian studies at Georgetown University Victor Cha, says that "I think we underestimated North Korea's cybercapabilities."

edition.cnn.com...

Sorry, but i'm more likely to believe the former North Korean computer expert, who actually worked for their government and maintaints contact with Bureau 121 officers, over foreign experts who did or do not have access to North Korea or its current internal structures.

a reply to: SurrenderingAmerica

That connects enough dots.. I was out of the loop. Thank You..

Preventing a ‘cyber Pearl Harbor’ will require innovative thinking from the military

North Korean hackers possibly attacking a major Hollywood studio may get all the attention these days, but the more real concern is Russian hackers breaking into NATO or the White House, or Chinese hackers launching round after round of corporate espionage attacks.

Of course, there are some who discount the threat of a cyber Pearl Harbor. They claim that it is overhyped, that it’s just a “myth” and that it’s just a way to sell more virus prevention software, or a way to shift private sector costs of defending computer networks on to the government sector. Fair enough. But, let’s face it, that’s probably the same type of thinking that made a Japanese attack 73 years ago seem so unlikely or a 9/11 attack seem unfathomable just 13 years ago.

Right now, there are about 4,000 members of the U.S. Cyber Command. These are the people who will be forced to make a judgment call when an attack has taken place, estimate the full extent of the damage and then figure out how to retaliate using the types of new offensive capabilities that have emerged in just the last few years.

I'm starting to think this "attack" is meant for public consumption. A storyline to keep us updated on what comes next..

a reply to: KnightLight


Everyone should read this..


U.S. Asks China to Help Rein In Korean Hackers

developing options to give to the president during his vacation in Hawaii. They include new economic sanctions, mirroring those recently placed on Russian oligarchs and officials close to President Vladimir V. Putin, which would cut off their access to cash — the one perk that allows the elite surrounding Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, to live lifestyles their starving countrymen can barely imagine.

president has asked the military’s Cyber Command, which is led by the same four-star admiral who directs the National Security Agency, to come up with a range of offensive options that could be directed at North Korea.

One obvious potential target is Yongbyon, the center of North Korea’s nuclear program, where the state has invested huge sums to produce plutonium and uranium fuel for its small arsenal of nuclear weapons. Because of its geographic and technological isolation, Yongbyon is considered a far harder target to attack than were Iran’s nuclear facilities, the subject of an American cyberoperation code-named Olympic Games.

I'm starting to see a clearer picture.


The Stage is Set..

It took them longer to get a reason to go after North Korea..
Sneaky Russian invasions and plane shoot downs..
Syrian chemical weapons, ISIS...
Iranian plans to Nuke Israel...

Who's left..

Looks like China is last..

Here we go I guess.

I doubt NK hackers would call themselves the Guardians of Peace i have a feeling that they could be related to the Anonymous.

I had a read of some of the docs that contained lists of passwords and lets just say for a modern system those passwords were very easy to guess and it seems like sony has a very open international and department network where everyone seems to be visable to everyone else, so probably a few days with a network analysis bit of software you'd probably would of had a list of machines/there rough location and what versions of what software they're running probably down to what sits on what port on a switch/router

Probably loads of lazy people running fully public shares where you didn't need any authentication and many others where you just need to be logged in so an porter in New York can access files in London etc probably made it an early Christmas gift. For the systems probably running older versions of software theres probably loads of exploits to get into the systems and with a lot of machines in a trust relationship it probably wouldn't be hard to move from machine to machine slurping up data and thats before you get around to automating the process with some good viruses and a HDD delete to cover trails if and when the jobs done and the best thing is that since most of this could be done in house you'd never trip off a perimiter breach with a firewall so all the porter would need to do is copy it to an external drive and set off the evidence hiding phase and be laughing all the way.

Probably the servers holding credit card details etc are well protected but i'd imagine no one was really looking at the rest of the infrastructure

a reply to: Willtell


China. I had the same thought when this story first broke.

a reply to: Logarock

china?


. . . or NSA.


You really should read Ash Carter's co-authored book. It'll explain a lot on how the U.S. govt is switching gears right now.


Plus, he states in his book in regards to CYBER-TERRORISM (pg.150):

"In the event of catastrophic terrorism within the United States, it is easy to imagine the popular out-cry and the demand for drastic measures to ensure that it could not happen again. To some, no price would seem too high for protection, even curtailing the rights and freedoms Americans cherish."




* - Sound familiar ATS?
You so sure you wanna back your govt on this. . .

a reply to: KnightLight



China is also discussed in Ash Carter's book (Ch.3 , pg. 92).


Dealing With A Rising China


The U.S. believes that China is 'malleable'. And that the approach U.S. should take is of the "Talk softly but Carry a big stick".

The United States wants to begin to promote w/ China a "shared vision of an East Asian security system" - - by participating in Global Security Efforts. But that went down the toilet very recently.

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So, its now time to hire the ol' Economic Hitman on China.


Be prepared to see the following countries economy collapse:


Russia, China, EU, U.S.

Russia = check

China = in batter's box

EU = on deck

U.S. = warming up (and fast)


bang, bang, bang, BANG!

a reply to: Willtell

I really don't think the attack occurred in North Korea. I read that they train abroad and launch attacks from mulitple locations around the globe

a reply to: Answer

Who is North Korea's ally? ...China...sometimes friends help other friends...it could be...I'm just saying.

If NK (or NK with help from China and/or Russia) didn't do it, then it was an inside job. The biggest thing to take away from this regardless of who did it is, what will the government do? Some have already come out saying the internet needs new rules. Remember the internet "kill switch" that was talked about a few years ago? I'm sure that's gonna be making the rounds again, along with more net neutrality talk.

If the Government wants net neutrality, ask yourself why.

One major detail which the mainstream media conveniently overlooked is that back in July, the hacking group known as Anonymous, declared war on US government and its favored corporations, which they said would start on December 13, 2014 – in the same time frame as this crisis. It’s food for thought.

21stcenturywire.com...

This is something according to this article the msm has avoided mentioning.