Sat, Dec 06, 2014 page5

• North Korean elite hack their way out of poverty

  • Reuters, SEOUL
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  Despite North Korea’s poverty and isolation, it has poured resources into a sophisticated cyberwarfare cell called “Bureau 121,” defectors said, as Pyongyang came under the microscope for a crippling hack into computers at Sony Pictures Entertainment.

  A North Korean diplomat has denied Pyongyang was behind the attack that was launched last month, but a US national security source said it was a suspect.

  Defectors from North Korea have said Bureau 121, staffed by some of the nation’s most talented computer experts, is part of the Reconnaissance General Bureau — an elite spy agency run by the military. They have said it is involved in state-sponsored hacking, used by the Pyongyang government to spy on or sabotage its enemies.

  Pyongyang has active cyberwarfare capabilities, military and software security experts have said. Much of it is targeted at South Korea. However, Pyongyang has made no secret of its antipathy toward the US.

  Military hackers are among the most talented and rewarded people in North Korea. They are handpicked and trained from as young as 17, Jang Se-yul said, who studied with trainee hackers at North Korea’s military college for computer science — the University of Automation — before defecting to the South six years ago.

  Speaking to reporters in Seoul, he said that Bureau 121 has about 1,800 cyberwarriors, and is considered the elite of the military.

  “For them, the strongest weapon is cyber. In North Korea, it’s called the Secret War,” Jang said.

  One of his friends works in an overseas team of the unit, and is ostensibly an employee from a North Korean trading firm, Jang said. In North Korea, the friend and his family have been given a large state-allocated apartment in an upscale part of Pyongyang, Jang said.

  “No one knows ... his company runs business as usual. That’s why what he does is scarier,” Jang said. “My friend, who belongs to a rural area, could bring all of his family to Pyongyang. Incentives for North Korea’s cyberexperts are very strong ... they are rich people in Pyongyang.”

  He said the hackers in Bureau 121 were among the 100 students who graduate from the University of Automation per year after completing five years of study. More than 2,500 North Koreans apply for places at the university, which has a campus in Pyongyang, behind barbed wire.

  “They are handpicked,” said Kim Heung-kwang, a former computer science professor in North Korea who defected to the South in 2004, referring to the state hackers. “It is a great honor for them. It is a white-collar job there and people have fantasies about it.”

  The technology news Web site Re/code reported on Wednesday that Sony intends to name North Korea as the source of the attack. However, when asked about the Re/code report, a Sony spokeswoman said no announcement from the studio was coming. The company declined to comment on Thursday.

  Sony Pictures, a unit of Japan’s Sony Corp, is the distributor of The Interview a forthcoming comedy featuring a plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. North Korea has described the film as an “act of war.”

  Last year, more than 30,000 PCs at South Korean banks and broadcasting companies were hit by a similar attack that cybersecurity researchers widely believe was launched from North Korea.

  Months later, South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s official Web site was targeted, and a picture of her was defaced with a banner reading “Long live General Kim Jong-un, president of reunification!”

  Neither attack was particularly sophisticated, but South Korean authorities said North Korea was to blame, even though “hacktivist” groups — online activists who hack high-profile targets in order to spread political messages — first appeared to claim responsibility.

  Those attacks used rudimentary, but effective malware which security researchers later dubbed “DarkSeoul.”

  Also known as the DarkSeoul gang, the hackers have been involved in a five-year campaign against South Korean targets, according to a report released last year by computer security firm Symantec, which estimated the group included 10 to 50 hackers and described it as “unique” in its ability to carry out high-profile and damaging attacks over several years.
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