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I'm the hacker that brought down North Korea's Internet for over a week. AMA

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Re: I'm the hacker that brought down North Korea's Internet for over a week. AMA

#151

Post by consumer451 »

csunbird wrote: post #141
vasco wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I imagine the NSA has a fully mapped out network layout for most major foes continuously updated in some sort of inventory database but for enemies, the same way they track large military gear and in which bases its at for their enemies. So yeah this seems very strange.

NSA and similar agencies are probably even mad at him, because he exposed the weakness that they could have exploited when needed, which is probably now patched.

> NSA and similar agencies are probably even mad at him, because he exposed the weakness that they could have exploited when needed, which is probably now patched.

Then they should have caught this when he came forward to multiple agencies, and was told that no one cared.

Please see my related comment as to why I submitted his AMA to HN. It's to bring to light this egregious lapse in US gov procedures:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40733355

Disclaimer: I do see the possible benefits for citizen liberty, where all agencies do not share every interaction with citizens. However, when a US citizen volunteers something actionable, there should be a special cross-agency path.

Re: I'm the hacker that brought down North Korea's Internet for over a week. AMA

#152

Post by wkat4242 »

jolmg wrote: post #122
red-iron-pine wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it is not a weird term, and is absolutely a thing. a big deal in 2024, really. back in the day it was just "reading the newspapers and talking to the local cab drivers", but on 2024 you're scanning forums and social media, on top of news sites. go to a military-related subreddit and start asking questions about stuff, and you'll eventually get an expert to chime in. Make wrong & stupid claims and then have them slap…

> OSINT is also absolutely a thing in Cyber First time I see "cyber" used as a noun. Is that short for "cyberspace", i.e. the internet, or is it something else?

Cybersecurity i think.

Re: I'm the hacker that brought down North Korea's Internet for over a week. AMA

#153

Post by wkat4242 »

resolutebat wrote: post #77
operator2140 wrote: post #73

Talk about delusions of grandeur. He knocked a few public facing HTTP hosts offline, amazing! I can “a bring down North Korea’s internet” aka a few public hosts for a week too if I rent Lizard Squads stresser for $400 a week. What’s supposed to be impressive about that?

No, he knocked out the two routers serving the entire country . NK sites were inaccessible to the outside world, and outside sites were inaccessible to NK.

But very very few North Koreans even have access to the internet. Regular people just have access to a local intranet with censored information.

That exercise that Russia did a few years ago to see if they could function cut off from the internet? For north Korea that's the regular self-imposed status quo. I don't think it will have had much impact on daily life there.

Re: I'm the hacker that brought down North Korea's Internet for over a week. AMA

#154

Post by valianteffort »

quickthrowman wrote: post #148
valianteffort wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Glad someone is saying this. Some obnoxious moron putting countless lives in danger to virtue signal has gotta be a new low on the internet retard scale.

Do you really think Kim is going to nuke Tokyo or Seoul because a US citizen DDOSed their connection to the internet? I find that .. unlikely

No, but I also don't think this moron should have done what he did. Any retaliation now rests solely on his shoulders.

Re: I'm the hacker that brought down North Korea's Internet for over a week. AMA

#155

Post by isr »

kjkjadksj wrote: post #116
jrexilius wrote: post #98

There are a couple good points in the linked Wired article, such as the fact that the Russians, Chinese, Iranians, and North Korea are already escalating attacks on civillian and commercial targets and our restraint isn't being matched. I fully understand why the US and partner governments won't be able to respond in kind, but there is certainly a lot more that could be done in that domain.

There are people that are in offensive cyber security in the US government, but realistically they have a bit more moral compass than the other state level actors that try and bring a hospital to its knees for the grand goal of making america look stupid for the nationalistic few who might actually care about that sort of thing. There's a saying we have here about never wrestling a pig in the mud: you will both be di…

[flagged]

Re: I'm the hacker that brought down North Korea's Internet for over a week. AMA

#156

Post by yatopifo »

akira2501 wrote: post #125
Sabinus wrote: post #69

>Like many other US hackers and security researchers, Caceres had been personally targeted by North Korean spies who aimed to steal his intrusion tools. He had detailed that targeting to the FBI but received no real government support. So he decided to take matters into his own hands and to send a message to the regime of Kim Jong Un: Messing with American hackers would have consequences. “It felt like the right thin…

Hardly. He's creating tools that interest state actors with no real means of defending himself or the tools. If he's that concerned he could just destroy the tools, but he wants to have his cake and eat it too. Then, in response to what should have been an obvious outcome to his actions, he commits what should be described as a "crime against humanity" against the entire communications infrastructure of a foreign cou…

No attack against North Korea can be considered a crime.

Re: I'm the hacker that brought down North Korea's Internet for over a week. AMA

#157

Post by mensetmanusman »

valianteffort wrote: post #138
consumer451 wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whose lives did he put in danger? Also, if the entirety of the US goverment will not protect you from foreign state-sanctioned personal attacks, what should one do? Just sit there and take it, even if one could stop it? > The State Department has a thing called "Rewards for Justice" and they talk extensively about the NK problem and how we're being hacked all the time. They pay millions for information. I told them "…

If North Korea took down US infrastructure we would consider it an act of war. The dange of exposing your devices to the open internet should be well understood by this so-called "hacker". For him to unilaterally decide to commit an act of war against a foreign nation means he should also be held accountable for it in international criminal court. Were this any other two nations you might have a different tone. But t…

He defended himself against an inept state that regularly shoots random people out of cannons and murders entire family lines of anyone who flees their hell hole.

If NK took down our infrastructure, it would be our fault because we have been warning our corrupt leaders for years and nothing is being done.

Re: I'm the hacker that brought down North Korea's Internet for over a week. AMA

#158

Post by mensetmanusman »

isr wrote: post #155
kjkjadksj wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are people that are in offensive cyber security in the US government, but realistically they have a bit more moral compass than the other state level actors that try and bring a hospital to its knees for the grand goal of making america look stupid for the nationalistic few who might actually care about that sort of thing. There's a saying we have here about never wrestling a pig in the mud: you will both be di…

[flagged]

Real politik is dirty, no one is perfect, just better or worse (for you).

Re: I'm the hacker that brought down North Korea's Internet for over a week. AMA

#159

Post by influx »

quickthrowman wrote: post #149
influx wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering they have performed assassinations outside of their soil, I would be slightly concerned.

They assassinated a potential rival for the throne . The situations are not even remotely similar. Killing a US citizen on US soil would not go down well.

India killed a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil... What exactly would the US do to North Korea that we haven't done already?

Re: I'm the hacker that brought down North Korea's Internet for over a week. AMA

#160

Post by iJohnDoe »

throwaway8877 wrote: post #26

So if it was down, how did it affect global security metrics?

This is a good point that no one has really pointed out based on my skimming, except for the OP saying they could stop all NK based attacks, which I’m guessing is based on blocking the 2 country routers.

However, a minimal amount of cyber attacks probably actually originate from NK directly. It’s known the NK hackers are trained in China and attacks probably flow through compromised VPS accounts, VPNs, open proxies, and open SOCKS-5 located around the world.

The NK hackers could be sitting in NK using the systems I referenced above to do their attacks and were not able to because they couldn’t connect to the internet. Maybe so, but they are most likely usually sitting in China and other locations.

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