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Thread: North Korea Trained 600 Hackers

  1. #1

    North Korea Trained 600 Hackers

    I'd like to get the community's opinions on this story.

    Link to FT.com story on North Korea

    Mostly bad? No one's worried?

    Regardless of whether this turns into an international problem and affects the US I think it's just a matter of time before these hackers get unhappy about their wages/position/etc and start doing a little freelancing.

  2. #2
    AO's Resident Redneck The Texan's Avatar
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    Im a lil worried but we do have organization's like CERT and other people and places who routinely check the internet for new hackers,crackers,viruses etc... so if something did come of that we would be able to know and respond quickly.
    Git R Dun - Ty
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  3. #3
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    I wouldn't be suprised if this was a trend that continues. Attacking a organziation's information infrastructure is a very viable target if you intend to cripple that organization. No matter if that organization if a country or a company.

    I also wouldn't be suprised if the US and other large countries aren't well into a program to do the same thing.

  4. #4
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    Well given that the North Korean government has stricter controls on communications than pre collapse russia or current day China I don't think them freelancing is something that we really have to worry about. If they start to get upset about their wages and do something out of line, they would most likely be killed. You can't compare what disgruntled employees in the united states would do to what people living in a dictatorship would do. The mindset is just completely different and can't be compared..

    is it an issue, or course it is. That is one of the main reasons the US is so worried about getting into a war with N. Korea. We should also be worried about their army of 1.6million troops and the other 3million reserve troops that they can muster. Not to mention the thousands of short range missiles that are locked onto targets in South Korea. If an all out war were to start with N. Korea they would wreak havoc on us, and their neighbors to the South. I'm not so sure that we could win a war with N. Korea.

  5. #5
    PHP/PostgreSQL guy
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    Considering the two major events that happened this year involving North Korea (Train wreck and the infamous initially-declared-as "forest fire", I would be surprised if they thought they could do a lot. It is an issue, but I'm fairly sure that we could catch it in time and block out their internet traffic which only works until they go covert in some other country, hehe...
    We the willing, led by the unknowing, have been doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much with so little for so long that we are now qualified to do just about anything with almost nothing.

  6. #6
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    North Korea would only have a reason to attack us if we were in a full out war on them.. They are not going to sit around just seeing what they can do. You must remember that we are not dealing with 16year kids here, we are dealing with militarily trained soldiers. And if you think those hackers couldn't wreak havoc on us I think you are wrong. There have been many wargame scenarios conducted and North Korea almost always wins whether or not they use an atomic bomb.

    We can't even stop a virus written by a 17year old german, what makes you think we can stop hundreds of soldiers who are far more skilled and trained that any of the virus kiddies.

  7. #7
    Senior Member z31200n3's Avatar
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    If an all out war were to start with N. Korea they would wreak havoc on us, and their neighbors to the South. I'm not so sure that we could win a war with N. Korea. [/B]
    While I believe that N. Korea is definatly developing some weapons program, and undobutedly has highly trained, non-script kiddie, computer-hacker-specialists, i dont believe we are in terrible danger militarily. I am proud to live in America, and while i lean more twords disolving ALL military forces and weapons in EVERY country, I also sleep well every night knowing that we have one of the strongest, smartest(?), and best trained military forces in existance. Like the 100th south park episode moral says, we need a strong military and supporters of that military in order to protect our country just as much as we need people who are against war and the military in order to not appear as either war and power hungry, or totally weak and defenseless. Just my 10 cents....

    -z3

  8. #8
    AFLAAACKKK!!
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    We would definitly win a war against N. Korea without a doubt. The United states has technology that the rest of the world hasn't even began to imagine yet. North korean might have their military trained hackers but so does the US. The United States Air Force has it's own cyber war devision, as well as other branches in the US military.

    I'm not scared of their 1.6 million troops. Saddam had over a million troops in the first gulf war and the US and it's allies plowed through and destroyed 80% of it's military. The only reason the US didn't destroy 100% was because we didn't want to leave iraq to weak for iran. Maybe back in vietnam you needed a ton of troops, but today's wars aren't about how many troops you have, it's about the technology and the US and Japan (which are allies) have the best technology in the world.

    Another thing, North Korea doesn't have nearly as many allies as the US does...
    I am the uber duck!!1
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  9. #9
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    Ask yourselves how many crackers Britain (or America, France, any other NATO country) trained during the cold war to attack the soviets...

    How many do they have today? Probably a lot more.

    Like spying, cracking is something that can basically "legitimately" be carried out against your allies or during peacetime.

    Slarty

  10. #10
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    Originally posted here by The Duck

    I'm not scared of their 1.6 million troops. Saddam had over a million troops in the first gulf war and the US and it's allies plowed through and destroyed 80% of it's military. The only reason the US didn't destroy 100% was because we didn't want to leave iraq to weak for iran. Maybe back in vietnam you needed a ton of troops, but today's wars aren't about how many troops you have, it's about the technology and the US and Japan (which are allies) have the best technology in the world.

    Another thing, North Korea doesn't have nearly as many allies as the US does...

    So how do you explain that most DoD wargame simulations run since 1991 have shown N. Korea to be the victor with extremely heavy losses to US troops and to S. Korean civilians? You have to remember that the US was the technological leader in the vietnam conflict and we didn't win that one. Not to mention that we couldn't beat the N. Koreans in the Korean conflict. They fight harder and better than our soldiers because they believe in the cause. Go ask the soldiers over in Iraq if they believe in the cause and we all know what the answer will be. Why would they feel any different about a war in N. Korea.. The North Korean soldiers blaim the US for the economic depression that they have in that country, they hate us, and will fight like a badger in a corner.

    If our government thought we could just walk all over the N. Koreans we would have taken them out before Iraq. We know we can't which is why we are being so diplomatic with them. Do a bit of research on what the N. Koreans have in terms of war capability and you will be impressed with the war machine that they have built. We don't have the number of troops that they do, and they can produce just as many weapons as we can. The North Koreans could have stomped all over Iraq just as we did.

    At our highest troop count in the Persain Gulf war we and our allies had a little over 1 million troops assembled, how does that compare to 4million??? The Iraqi forces didn't have the ability to go and hide in underground bunkers or in mountains like the North Koreans can. We will not just be able to carpet bomb the entire country like we have with Iraq. The Iraqi forces were also very tired from fighting a 10 year war with Iran. North Korean troops are well rested, and highly trained... And us having technical hackers to set loose on them does us no good as they do not rely as heavily on computer networks. We can't shutdown their phone networks with computer attacks because they use analog phone lines that are all buried underground.

    You may think we can win, but our military leaders don't think we can, atleast not without using nuclear weapons.

    Here is a good synopsis of the N. Korean military. Most of this data can be confirmed on www.globalsecurity.org.

    http://www.kimsoft.com/2003/nk-war-han.htm

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