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The Internet Security

North Korea Hacked Him. So He Took Down Its Internet 68

Posted by msmash from the don't-mess-with-me dept.
Disappointed with the lack of US response to the Hermit Kingdom's attacks against US security researchers, one hacker took matters into his own hands. From a report For the past two weeks, observers of North Korea's strange and tightly restricted corner of the internet began to notice that the country seemed to be dealing with some serious connectivity problems. On several different days, practically all of its websites -- the notoriously isolated nation only has a few dozen -- intermittently dropped offline en masse, from the booking site for its Air Koryo airline to Naenara, a page that serves as the official portal for dictator Kim Jong-un's government. At least one of the central routers that allow access to the country's networks appeared at one point to be paralyzed, crippling the Hermit Kingdom's digital connections to the outside world.

Some North Korea watchers pointed out that the country had just carried out a series of missile tests, implying that a foreign government's hackers might have launched a cyberattack against the rogue state to tell it to stop saber-rattling. But responsibility for North Korea's ongoing internet outages doesn't lie with US Cyber Command or any other state-sponsored hacking agency. In fact, it was the work of one American man in a T-shirt, pajama pants, and slippers, sitting in his living room night after night, watching Alien movies and eating spicy corn snacks -- and periodically walking over to his home office to check on the progress of the programs he was running to disrupt the internet of an entire country.

Just over a year ago, an independent hacker who goes by the handle P4x was himself hacked by North Korean spies. P4x was just one victim of a hacking campaign that targeted Western security researchers with the apparent aim of stealing their hacking tools and details about software vulnerabilities. He says he managed to prevent those hackers from swiping anything of value from him. But he nonetheless felt deeply unnerved by state-sponsored hackers targeting him personally -- and by the lack of any visible response from the US government. So after a year of letting his resentment simmer, P4x has taken matters into his own hands.
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North Korea Hacked Him. So He Took Down Its Internet More

North Korea Hacked Him. So He Took Down Its Internet

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  • Proper link pls? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Sebby ( 238625 ) on Wednesday February 02, 2022 @05:25PM (#62231791)
    The link doesn't work.

  • Do until others before they can do unto you?

    An eye for an eye?

    Add your own....

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • You are 100% correct.
        If the leader of that country was willing to let his brother die, then you have to ask yourself, how deep do you have to hid so that they don't get near to you.

        it's easier just to figure a new defensive stance and spread patch's ( at lease that is what I think )

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Tyr07 ( 8900565 )

          Under the guise this it's true, the US might do nothing currently but if NK escalates things, the US might intervene at that point. So ironically it might be NK who takes a new defensive stance, and patches it.

          NK isn't in a position of power over other countries in the world at the top of the food chain. They're just keeping themselves in a position of "Not worth it to do it".

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      He might have disrupted things for NK for a while, but I doubt they will now drop it and not retaliate.

      NK is mostly interested in getting money to avoid sanctions. Ransomware, fraud, that kind of thing. If they decide to just trash stuff and cause mayhem it could be a significant escalation over what we have today.

  • Next week, BBC reports.. (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    A personal individual who had already attracted the attention of North Korea has been found dead in his home from plutonium poisoning.

    I mean, shit dude. North Korea has already killed people in other countries. Now you're directly attacking the government of that nation? Now admitting to it? What is the expected flashback going to be? Damn, dude.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by amchugh ( 116330 )

      Plutonium poisoning? That is a ridiculous conspiracy theory. Clearly they'd use a nerve agent like VX instead.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Tablizer ( 95088 )

        They'd probably just OD him with a meth injection. That looks much less suspicious.

        • Why do you think they want to look less suspicious? It sends a message plutonium poisoning done by Russia or the nerve agent which was North Korea sends a much stronger message.

          • Polonium, shorter half-life, more exotic, Russia is one of few that can produce it currently.

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by Tablizer ( 95088 )

            They may want to scare others (send a message), but also have plausible deniability. High-end materials look too state-sponsored.

  • brave decision (Score:3)

    by bloodhawk ( 813939 ) on Wednesday February 02, 2022 @05:30PM (#62231815)
    Hope he isn't known to them by name, otherwise the usual response by any government of direct attacks (even in the west), is a gentle double tap.
  • Cyber BS ..

  • Couch potato P4x guy (Score:4, Funny)

    by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Wednesday February 02, 2022 @05:41PM (#62231863)

    In fact, it was the work of one American man in a T-shirt, pajama pants, and slippers, sitting in his living room night after night, watching Alien movies and eating spicy corn snacks -- and periodically walking over to his home office to check on the progress of the programs he was running to disrupt the internet of an entire country.

    ... an independent hacker who goes by the handle P4x ...

    The less athletic cousin of that P90X [amazon.com] guy? :-)

  • Yeah, sure, I mean its all totally believable. NK just awoke the WFH vigilante, right?

    Looks more like a P4x trap to me. Hoping NK thinks like Winnie the Pooh - Oh look hunny! I'll just have myself a little smackerel.

  • Anyone with the chops to pull this off would not be advertising the fact to anyone else. 5 I's agencies would come snooping at his door at a minimum. (recruiting or coercing).

    But, if the US wanted to retaliate without the political adversities of a direct assault, this would be what it would look like. Similar to Russian agencies turning blind eyes to "independent" hackers as long as they target external entities.

  • It would have made perfect sense for a government to attack their infrastructure in retaliation for weapons testing but sure, I guess we'll buy that some random hacker guy's scripts were targeted a year ago and he waited all this time just to coincidentally retaliate at the same time as the missile tests. Who is the source of this story, a government spokesperson wanting to make sure we all know it was just a rogue individual that nobody cares to investigate?

  • ... that guy is my hero.

  • What have you done?

  • It really isn't hard to take down a rickety Packard Bell 486 running Windows 95, such which powers North Korea's internet.

  • I know there aren't many Attorneys who frequent slashdot, but from a legal perspective, what are the legalities of defensively hacking a foreign axis power as a private person? If I had to speculate I'd guess that America's computer security laws are only applicable to domestic situations, and if they extend overseas, only to allied countries with reciprocal extradition treaties. So would hacking someone like North Korea, China, Russia, et. al. be considered a lawful affirmative self defense if they attacke

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