"Sharpened Knife for Retaliation"... US Hacker Disables North Korea's Internet Network

Kim Jong-un, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of North Korea. /Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Na Yeeun] An American hacker recently claimed responsibility for paralyzing North Korea's entire internet network.

The anonymous hacker 'P4x' revealed in an interview with the U.S. IT media Wired on the 2nd (local time) that he led the distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack against North Korea.

Earlier, on the 26th of last month, almost all North Korean websites were down due to the DDoS attack, and various connection disruptions have continued since then. The U.S.-based North Korea specialist media NK News reported that the hacker continued the attack until that morning.

The hacker explained that the attack was retaliatory, saying, "I suffered damage from North Korea's hacking against Western security researchers a year ago."

In January of last year, North Korean hackers attempted to hack Western security researchers to steal information about software vulnerabilities, and 'P4x' was one of the targets.

Although direct damage was prevented at the time, feeling uneasy about state-level hacking targeting individuals and the insufficient response from the U.S. government, he decided to take action himself.

The man claimed that vulnerabilities were found in the servers and routers on which North Korea's internet network depends, making a series of DDoS attacks possible. He added that hacking attacks on North Korean systems are now largely automated.

He also said that while he has focused on testing and finding vulnerabilities so far, he plans to hack actual North Korean systems to steal information and share it with experts in the future. He hopes to recruit other hackers to take collective action. He also created a dark web (a web accessible only through special web browsers) to promote this.

Meanwhile, Dave Aitel, a former U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) hacker who was targeted by North Korean hacking in January last year, pointed out, "There is a possibility that the attack is disrupting existing Western covert operations, and it is not a productive approach."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.