North Korean "hackers" target "softer" Australian networks

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An army of more than 500 hackers hired by the North Korean military could find Australian businesses a "softer target" than their U.S. or European-based counterparts, according to security experts.

The hacking army’s mission is to break into South Korean, Japanese and American corporate networks to gather intelligence and steal trade secrets, according to reports.

But security experts are concerned because although Australian-based firms hold the same intellectual property as their U.S. and EU-based offices, they are not as paranoid about security.

A U.S. security expert who requested anonymity said Australia could provide a "back door" into corporate networks and provide the North Koreans’ with intellectual property worth billions of dollars.

"Countries like China and North Korea are not exactly poster children for copyright enforcement. North Korea’s economic position is not favorable and that makes it more dangerous. They want the ability to manufacture goods better and cheaper," the security expert said.

Terry O'Keeffe, Leader of the Asia Pacific Cyber Attack Tiger Team at telecommunications giant Cable and Wireless, said Australia could be seen as a softer target than the U.S.

"We are a trusted ally--along with the UK, Canada and New Zealand--but we are not quite as paranoid as the Americans," said O’Keeffe.

A spokesperson from the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO), which is responsible for warning the government of any potential threats to national security, admitted to ZDNet Australia that electronic espionage attacks "happen all the time".

The spokesperson said the ASIO is aware of the problem and is taking an interest in it, but would not be able to comment on anything not specifically mentioned in its annual report.

However, Mikko Hyppönen, director of anti-virus research at European security firm F-Secure, is skeptical.

"This is probably more boasting than a real threat. In the past we have seen similar claims from the Taiwanese and the East Timorese," said Hyppönen.

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I wonder exactly how much these "hackers" know?
Are they just looking for weak points and running scripts (s.kiddies)?
What kind of material was used for their training?

I want to know more about their training. Because you can't teach someone to "hack"... they have to teach themselves. But you can teach someone how to run scans and scripts.

EDIT: It would seem that they are trained rather well...
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,59043,00.html

Wonder if there are any colleges in the states that teach the same?
I'd imagine the US .gov would have a similar program...

Funny, but the first thing that popped into my head is how do they know it is more then 500 hackers? Could be 499 scriptkiddies, and 1 hacker...?

Ya gotta figure thou, hacking has worked very well in the past to take out foreign goverments... worked great for the Goths, Vandals, and Huns :D

if wonder if the journalist who wrote this knows (or cares) bout difference between hacker and script kiddie.

Trust me on this one, every place has got something like this. I interviewed for a government job once. Needless to say it was a little over my head. Without getting to descriptive, there is some serious anti-cyber terror stuff in the US. Real serious.

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Originally posted here by kr5kernel
Trust me on this one, every place has got something like this. I interviewed for a government job once. Needless to say it was a little over my head. Without getting to descriptive, there is some serious anti-cyber terror stuff in the US. Real serious.

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you really mean there are 13 yr old zit kids with US gov sec badges walking around in the basement of the pentagon? no wayyyy!

No not like that. But the US spends quite a bit on computer security and there are departments devoted to not only protecting goverment security, but also agencies that dabble with private sector as well.

interesting ^^_

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Originally posted here by snoweagle
interesting ^^_

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dude, they ain't gonna hire you. give it up. you are a north korean script kiddie and you can't formulate legible english. i got a better chance getting hired cause i live within NORAD.

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I wonder exactly how much these "hackers" know?
Are they just looking for weak points and running scripts (s.kiddies)?
What kind of material was used for their training?

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umm.maybe it could just be a freak tactic, a deversion of some sort to make "us" put our energy into something else or somewhere else instead of seeing the true method of attack? Like Britain did with its "ballon" army during WW2 that made Germany think there was an attack from here instead from there.

Quite possible, how secretive can something be when you announce you are training people to become corporate spies. Could very well be a diversion, but one more thing we will have to watch out for and call their bluff on.

I think that the story could very well be legit and not a "balloon army" tactic as stated in an earlier thread. I would like to know where this journalist obtained these figures from. North Korean defectors have devulged important facts to the U.S. and its allies before, and this could be an example of that. I would wonder, if there were 500 hackers aiming at a certain economical being, would it be outrageous to think that one could slip up and leave a trail that could be followed back to North Korea. I would hope Austrailia, in light of this information, would step up its network security to help safeguard information that could have negative effects on citizens of Australia and the United States

Not to be bashing other countries but the U.S. dose put a lot of time and effort in computer security and what the artical is saying is that they are targiting the U.S. not by trying to attacking the U.S. directly but by attacking diffrent countries who do not have such a respect for security but who have untied states based companies their what an artical i read on slachdot.org said was the reason behind this was to try to steal company secrets and try to turn a profit from it by making the products with a cheeper labor caust to make a better profit then the US based properities.

Script kiddie? What the hell are you then? Seriously bud, how many AO members point out a few damaging flaws they've found in others' software. Ahh, not that many 'eh? :p :D :p

But think about it, I could litterally teach a 10 year old how to move up in the world with C++, how to play with sockets and make server and client applications, how to have fun with web based scripting, how to program a scanner... why that would be enought of a start, ok... but within few moments later I'd have that kid modifying his scanner to ./auto-root a few IIS and Apache servers laying around unpatched and online. In the end we'd probably have the equivelent if not even more than a gray-area class or one of those "l33t h4xing 101" portions of cons like Interz0ne, HOPE, or defcon could possably offer.

Aside that, this ain't going to effect entire nations... I don't know why they are making out like this will. If it did then you would only have an entire nation to compete agianst. We have a large chunk of your money, our problems are solved? Haha! Just think about what has happend to sites of companies that supported sueing people who have swaped a few mp3s with random people on the web.

Aren't we forgetting the great American, Mexican, European, China, Korean, Cuban, Muslim defacement holywar agianst every single economic, govermental stance, & buisness habbit known to man? Whats funny is in the end its just a way to keep things from appearing as if they do things randomly... which really thats all it is intil you give people an execuse to screw you up the butt intil it bleeds.

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Not to be bashing other countries but the U.S. dose put a lot of time and effort in computer security and what the artical is saying is that they are targiting the U.S. not by trying to attacking the U.S. directly but by attacking diffrent countries who do not have such a respect for security but who have untied states based companies their what an artical i read on slachdot.org said was the reason behind this was to try to steal company secrets and try to turn a profit from it by making the products with a cheeper labor caust to make a better profit then the US based properities.

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Now if that's not the biggest run on sentence I have ever seen... lol

Specialist, do you mind pointing out some good resources on the internet that you know of for C++? Like maybe a .pdf to download and read or something? I would really appreciate it!

that's gotta be one smart 10 year old. the 10 year old kids i know have a hard time grasping long division, let alone scanner programming ;)

(Working for the government as a "hacker" would be a fun job. Especially if you get to pack a gun...)


What a joke... North Korea - Now that is one crazy dude that Kim Il Jung or whatever his name is...

he's very ronery: http://www.teamamericamovie.com/ ;)

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Especially if you get to pack a gun...)

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I'm guessing you never had to pack a gun. I have..............it aint fun. Believe me.