Most North Koreans never know what's being called the internet. But this is the country that the United States is referred to as the culprit of computer network hacking Sony Pictures Entertainment on November 24 last.
Hollywood movie studios owned Japanese technology giant Sony, it is not the only victim of cyber army North Korea. South Korea, countries that are still technically at war with North Korea, in recent years has been repeatedly hacked by cyber forces Pyongyang.
Experts say that the burglary Sony Pictures is the most harmful cyber attack against a US company. As a result of hacking, many documents, emails, and even films that have not been released successfully stolen and distributed in cyberspace.
Fostering Thousands Hacker
But poor countries, which repeatedly experiencing an acute food crisis, due to the US economic sanctions seem to devote substantial resources to train thousands of hacking into military units sibernya.
According to South Korean secret service there are about 1000 to 3000 professional hackers who fostered the North. But the amounts disclosed in 2010 that, based on the North Korean government documents leaked in 2009, may have been stale.
But they believe with certainty is that hackers North train at elite schools. They will be used to launch a cyber attack to the South.
Kim Heung Kwang, a former South Korean spy and also an escape from North Korea, saying that he himself trained North Korean hackers at a university in the city of Hamhung industry for 20 years. The prospective hackers were also sent to study in China and Russia.
Kim, who defected to South Korea in 2003, said he believed that since 2009 the number of North Korean hackers has increased dramatically. He said some North Korean cyber army stationed in China and served attacking enemies abroad North Korea.
Meanwhile, according to Simon Choi, a senior researcher at South Korea's anti-virus companies, Hauri Inc., said that the North Korean hackers hone their skills by launching a number of attacks on South Korea.
Choi, who analyze a variety of malicious programs of North Korea, said the North Korean hackers capabilities continue to increase and even able to make malicious programs look like a regular computer program.
South Korea's So Soft Target
South Korea has at least six times blamed North Korea as the perpetrators of hacking in various local industries since 2007. In the sixth case, the hackers always mengicar hard drive, crippling the banking system, or disrupt access to various websites.
The first attack occurred on July 7, 2009, when dozens of South Korean websites and US government agencies paralyzed by peretaa.
The method used is to ignite a large flow of Internet traffic of thousands of zombie computers, which previously has been hijacked by certain viruses, to the websites of South Korea and the United States.
The same attack took place on March 4, 2011. Hackers targeting around 40 websites belonging to government agencies and private companies in the South.
A month later, on 12 April 2011, the bank Nonghyup in the South who are victims. As a result of the attack, the bank would have to wait two weeks to be able to operate normally and reopen access to online banking and ATM machines.
About a year later, turn JoongAng Ilbo newspaper websites, which is hacked. Attacks launched on June 6, 2012 it makes the site look the newspaper changed its editorial system and the data is also broken.
One of the actions of the most detrimental North Korean hackers occurred on March 20, 2013. At that time the hackers attacked about 48,000 computers and servers, paralyzing banks in South Korea for two to five days.
South Korean government said there was no banking data or personal information that had been stolen, but the staff at the three South Korean television station can not access their system for two days.
Three months later, right on the anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War, dozens of government websites and the media in the South attacked by malicious programs and almost paralyzed.
Threat in the Future?
Experts believe that North Korea is now focusing on developing sibernya army because of its low cost and do not take long to create malicious programs or computer viruses. Moreover, cyber attacks can be done secretly, without the need to demonstrate a clear identity.
War move to virtual Theater is also more favorable than North Korea. In the South almost all trading activity and other aspects of life is connected to the Internet, while in the North only a handful of people who know the internet.
"North Korea has very little computer connected to the internet, so not much can be achieved if attacked them. But Korea has a very large IT infrastructure and can be attacked at any time," Choi said, adding that South Korea is an easy target for hackers. (AP)
