Shutting down a whole country's internet sounds like a scene from a movie about hackers, but a certain American hacker was actually able to do this by himself. The hacker, according to reports, was able to single handedly take down the entire internet of North Korea.
American Hacker Took Down North Korea's Internet
According to the article by Wired, the American hacker took down the internet of North Korea in January of this year. In addition, outages in North Korea's internet were actually spotted over the past few weeks.
There were certain times where it was observed that all of North Korea's websites were down.
Although it seems rather mind-blowing that a hacker was able to shut down a whole country's internet, it should be noted that North Korea's internet actually comprises just a few dozen websites.
Outage Comes After North Korea Tried to Target Western Security Researchers
According to the story by CNET, this series of outages in North Korea's internet came after a rather big event. The outages happened after North Korea announced it had conducted a couple of missile tests. This has caused certain experts to wonder whether or not "the outages were caused by cyber attacks from a foreign country."
The mysterious hacker was known by the handle, P4x, and told Wired that he actually attacked the rogue state as a form of retaliation in connection to a particular event that involved the hacker.
In 2021, it is said that North Korea launched a "hacking campaign" that specifically "targeted western security researchers, including him."
North Koreans Tried to Steal Hacking Tools and Vulnerability Information
The North Koreans reportedly tried to steal hacking tools as well as vulnerability information. P4x, however, did not say as to whether the hackers were successful in grabbing valuable information from the hacker.
Although it has been noted by the report that claims being made by the hacker cannot be independently verified, Wired noted that they spoke with P4x and said that the hacker shared screen recordings that are said to verify his responsibility.
P4x Said the Hack Felt Like the Right Thing to do
P4x decided to keep his real identitity, most especially his real name, hidden becaue he is afraid of being persecuted or receiving any form of retaliation. In addition, P4x told Wired that his alleged hacking of North Korea "felt like the right thing to do here."
He also said that "if they don't see we have teeth, it's just going to keep coming" in response to North Korea's initial attack on security researchers.
P4x notes that he has been able to find a number of known but unpatched bugs within the North Korean systems. These bugs have made is possible for him to launch denial-of-service (DoS) attacks on the servers and routers that North Korea's few internet networks rely on.
The hacker gave an example of a certain known vulnerability that is possible to exploit. Exploiting the said vulnerability can actually cause servers to go offline. However, he declined to specify the actual bugs were exploited.
In addition, experts have noted that that a very small number of North Koreans have access to the internet to begin with. It has also been noted that many of the affected sites were mostly used for "government propaganda."
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This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Urian B.
