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A Closer Look at North Korea’s Ullim Tablet

38north.org

31–40 of 177 posts

Re: A Closer Look at North Korea’s Ullim Tablet

#31
post #6
post #3

ok , so DPRK is installing spyware on tablets that are sold in DPRK. Reading this article, it occurs to me that it's not very different than the surveillance that the NSA is performing on US Citizens, except the NSA is smarter about it and taps the network access, at the network provider.

The NSA isn't attempting to control what you do on your devices in any way.

Ever heard of the Panopticon [1]? The NSA is a modern, digital, version of it.

There was a time when a person could go online to look up recipes or shop for backpacks [2] without thinking twice about it. Not anymore, Panoptes has eyes on us all. Our minds know this, and in turn, our behavior changes.

I realize that this isn't exactly what you're saying, and living under the DPRK is absolutely worse than NSA surveillance. But, there are unseen repercussions to the death of privacy that are often overlooked, or downplayed. Ahead of everything else, the NSA and the DPRK control our devices by controlling us.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon [2] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/01/new-york-polic...

Re: A Closer Look at North Korea’s Ullim Tablet

#32
post #28

Random fact that I learned recently, 20% of the North Korean population was killed during the Korean War (1950-1953). Mostly with Napalm. :(

The US dropped more bombs on North Korea than we dropped on all of Europe and Japan during WWII. Proxy wars between superpowers never work out well for the actual people affected, and we should not be so forgetful of that.

Re: A Closer Look at North Korea’s Ullim Tablet

#33

The one good, albeit tragic, thing about the existence of North Korea is that it serves as a constant reminder of what society can become if we're not vigilant about educating each generation about the dangers of certain ideologies and modes of social organization.

The government of North Korea is one of the two puppet dictatorships established in the Korean peninsula after World War II. It was the will of the Korean people to establish a socialist democracy, not a Juche dictatorship, but in 1946 the USSR and USA decided that what the Korean people wanted was the least important concern. The point is that it wasn't the ideology of the Korean people that mattered, it was the clash of 2 imperialists and its result.

Re: A Closer Look at North Korea’s Ullim Tablet

#34
post #30
post #28

Random fact that I learned recently, 20% of the North Korean population was killed during the Korean War (1950-1953). Mostly with Napalm. :(

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-us-war-crime-nor...

These people are insane.

> And if North Korea ever does change, if the Kim family were overthrown or were to voluntarily loosen its chokehold on information, a U.S. apology for the bombing could help dispel 65 years of hate.

Consider the response of white americans in the US after the Imperial Japanese bombed a military force in Pearl Harbor, with almost zero civilian casualties. It quickly became common sentiment in the US to respond by ridding the world of the "yellow scourge" after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. The US response was to carpet bomb Japanese cities full of civilians, carpet bomb foreign cities held by Japan holding civilians and citizens of foreign nations, etc... then to top it off, they felt fully justified to drop two nuclear bombs on two cities full of civilians in Japan to teach East-Asia a lesson. They didn't drop it on the military which was massed in the southern parts of Japan, the US intentionally dropped TWO ATOMIC bombs on cities full of civilians!

How do they expect the North Koreans to just be appeased by their "apology"? It's crazy, crazy, crazy on the part of the US as well. It's actually insanity.

Re: A Closer Look at North Korea’s Ullim Tablet

#35
This is a terrifying manifestation of what technology makes trivially possible. This device:

* Logs every app and web page that you open.

* Keeps forensics on shared files based on hashes, to track networks of like-minded dissidents or individuals sharing similar files.

* Refuses to open any files which are not signed by either the government, or the device which created the file. (e.g. photos can be viewed only on the device that took them, while government-approved files can be shared freely.)

Among other things. Yikes.

Re: A Closer Look at North Korea’s Ullim Tablet

#36

I prefer the version "not all that glitters is gold", otherwise it sounds like gold, which glitters, is not gold. Interestingly in Spanish both versions are also popular.

>gold, which glitters, is not gold that's the poetic point "All that glisters is not gold— Often have you heard that told. Many a man his life hath sold But my outside to behold. Gilded tombs do worms enfold."

[deleted]

Re: A Closer Look at North Korea’s Ullim Tablet

#37
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-us-war-crime-nor...

These people are insane. > And if North Korea ever does change, if the Kim family were overthrown or were to voluntarily loosen its chokehold on information, a U.S. apology for the bombing could help dispel 65 years of hate. Consider the response of white americans in the US after the Imperial Japanese bombed a military force in Pearl Harbor, with almost zero civilian casualties. It quickly became common sentiment in…

But what if they hadn't? Japan was invading most of Asia with mass killings along the lines of ISIS and the Nazis. Are you saying ISIS should also be left alone and America not try to stop them?

Japanese civilians at the time weren't really innocent. The whole country was working for the war effort, mainly to kill other Asian people.

Re: A Closer Look at North Korea’s Ullim Tablet

#38

This is a terrifying manifestation of what technology makes trivially possible. This device: * Logs every app and web page that you open. * Keeps forensics on shared files based on hashes, to track networks of like-minded dissidents or individuals sharing similar files. * Refuses to open any files which are not signed by either the government, or the device which created the file. (e.g. photos can be viewed only on t…

I wonder if people will be photographing each other's screens to share photos. Seems like a loophole in the digital signing.

Re: A Closer Look at North Korea’s Ullim Tablet

#40

This is a terrifying manifestation of what technology makes trivially possible. This device: * Logs every app and web page that you open. * Keeps forensics on shared files based on hashes, to track networks of like-minded dissidents or individuals sharing similar files. * Refuses to open any files which are not signed by either the government, or the device which created the file. (e.g. photos can be viewed only on t…

I wonder if people will be photographing each other's screens to share photos. Seems like a loophole in the digital signing.

It would seem other tools will fix that "loophole".... The first is a piece of software called “Red Flag.” It runs in the background and takes a screenshot every time the user opens an app.

I would think opening the camera and taking a picture of another tablet would draw suspicion.

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