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South Korea military cyber command was hacked

english.yonhapnews.co.kr

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Re: South Korea military cyber command was hacked

#21

Post by thematt »

electic wrote: post #20

No one will be safe until governments stop hoarding 0-days. Until we all realize we live in a glass house, the hacks will continue. The best solution is to split the NSA and similar agencies into two. One for developing new tools that produces safer code and finding flaws and reporting them to companies so they get patched. The second for offense.

I'm not sure how splitting up the NSA fixes anything. Wouldn't the new offensive organization still be compelled to seek out zero-day exploits as well for their mission? What happens when they find one that the defensive organization hasn't found yet?

Re: South Korea military cyber command was hacked

#22

Post by fma »

ComodoHacker wrote: post #8

>speculation that North Korea might be behind the latest cyber attack Does North have hackers skilled enough to perform such (or any) attacks? How did they acquire their skills given the internet is forbidden there?

As much as the US Media wants to you think North Korea is cut off from the rest of the world, it's not. They have a space program and nuclear program, which is more than what a lot of other countries can say.

It's not a bunch of people living under thatch houses.

If the government wants to make strides in something, they will. They can send their students overseas and get their education there. They can collaborate with other countries.

It's not something every citizen can achieve, but you only need a subset to be effective in cyber warfare.

Re: South Korea military cyber command was hacked

#23

Post by jasonwatkinspdx »

noobermin wrote: post #16
SRSposter wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same way they got ahold of nuclear weapons knowledge.

If after decades, they are only now developing nukes barely as powerful as the earliest nuclear weapons (although still dangerous), one would wonder if their decades delayed IT know-how really can pull off such an attack.

The situation is a bit more complex than that. We don't know the yield of NK's weapons based on the tests, because it's likely the tests have been sized to minimize material usage and just confirm the physics. Given that they're expanding their uranium mining it seems likely they have centrifuges operating and they're building hybrid bombs. This is the same path China went down when they were material limited.

So anyhow, it's not like a footrace where the major nuclear powers are at the finish line and NK is trying to catch up. They're following their own path appropriate for the situation they're in.

Re: South Korea military cyber command was hacked

#24

Post by fma »

ComodoHacker wrote: post #19
danmaz74 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I imagine that they can select the most promising students, enroll them in the military, and give them, under scrutiny, access to all the information they need.

Creating a layer of young intelligent people with access to information and exposure to foreign culture... This can be dangerous.

Dangerous for their family. I'm sure the young people have their entire family on the verge of hard labor camp, or death, if they do something against the government.

If the smart ones who work for the government wants can feed their entire family, why would they do something different? To strive for a democracy like ours where a racist, bigot and xenophobe like Trump is a vote away from being president?

All NK needs to do is air some of Trump's speeches to prove dear leader was right all along.

Re: South Korea military cyber command was hacked

#25

Post by maxander »

ComodoHacker wrote: post #8

>speculation that North Korea might be behind the latest cyber attack Does North have hackers skilled enough to perform such (or any) attacks? How did they acquire their skills given the internet is forbidden there?

As other commenters have noted, they're not completely primitive. And while yes, their technical know-how is far behind South Korea's, with the state of modern cybersecurity its equivalently harder to keep people out than it is to get in.

For what it's worth, that problem works both ways; I'd imagine South Korea (and the CIA and whoever else is interested) has all sorts of access to North Korean systems.

Re: South Korea military cyber command was hacked

#26

Post by electic »

thematt wrote: post #21
electic wrote: post #20

No one will be safe until governments stop hoarding 0-days. Until we all realize we live in a glass house, the hacks will continue. The best solution is to split the NSA and similar agencies into two. One for developing new tools that produces safer code and finding flaws and reporting them to companies so they get patched. The second for offense.

I'm not sure how splitting up the NSA fixes anything. Wouldn't the new offensive organization still be compelled to seek out zero-day exploits as well for their mission? What happens when they find one that the defensive organization hasn't found yet?

Better than the current setup. The defensive side sole responsibility is to find critical flaws and report them. This would also include investigating breaches in US infra and making sure things get patched. Right now, you don't even have the defensive side.

Re: South Korea military cyber command was hacked

#28

Post by yongjik »

1. Government website gets hacked

2. Government blames North Korea

3. ???

4. Profit! Err, I mean, government support goes up.

Well, maybe North Korea did it, maybe it didn't, but the current state of South Korean politics created a perverse incentive structure. The more severely the government is hacked (or otherwise attacked by North Korea), the more it is politically rewarded.

So, expect nothing to change any time soon.

Re: South Korea military cyber command was hacked

#29

Post by FrancoDiaz »

fma wrote: post #22
ComodoHacker wrote: post #8

>speculation that North Korea might be behind the latest cyber attack Does North have hackers skilled enough to perform such (or any) attacks? How did they acquire their skills given the internet is forbidden there?

As much as the US Media wants to you think North Korea is cut off from the rest of the world, it's not. They have a space program and nuclear program, which is more than what a lot of other countries can say. It's not a bunch of people living under thatch houses. If the government wants to make strides in something, they will. They can send their students overseas and get their education there. They can collaborate w…

As much as the US Media wants to you think North Korea is cut off from the rest of the world, it's not.

The US media doesn't say that. The average N. Korean is very much cut off from the rest of the world....somewhat changing with smuggled in phone and DVDs, but still.

Re: South Korea military cyber command was hacked

#30

Post by chucksmash »

noobermin wrote: post #16
SRSposter wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same way they got ahold of nuclear weapons knowledge.

If after decades, they are only now developing nukes barely as powerful as the earliest nuclear weapons (although still dangerous), one would wonder if their decades delayed IT know-how really can pull off such an attack.

Two things:

- I don't think the chronological order in which we've developed technologies matches up with the difficulties of cloning/repurposing/using them. I wouldn't expect NK to be able to put a man on the moon prior to, say, being able to make a Facebook clone.

- not everything is being invented from scratch. If individuals can smuggle data and devices in, do you doubt the military acting with the full resources of the country couldn't manage the same?

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