North Korean hackers stole US war plans

[jimmy olsen]

It always surprises me that North Korea has people with enough expertise in computers to pull these kinds of Ops off, or is our cyber-defense just that bad?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/18/north-south-korea-hackers

North Korean hackers may have stolen US war plans

Files outline South Korea and Washington's strategy in event of war on the peninsula

    * guardian.co.uk, Friday 18 December 2009 12.41 GMT


South Korea's military is investigating a cyber attack in which North Korean hackers may have stolen secret defence plans outlining Seoul and Washington's strategy in the event of war on the Korean peninsula.

The highly sensitive information, codenamed Oplan 5027, may have found its way into hostile hands last month after a South Korean officer used an unsecured USB memory stick to download it.

It reportedly contained a summary of military operations involving South Korean and US troops should North Korea conduct a pre-emptive strike or attempt to invade.

According to the Chosun Ilbo, a South Korean newspaper, the document outlines troop deployments, a list of North Korean targets, amphibious landing scenarios and how to establish a post-war occupation.

The Yonhap news agency said the plan allowed for the deployment of 700,000 US troops in the event of a full-scale war.

Embarrassed officials in Seoul attempted to play down its importance. The document was not a full text of the plans, said the defence ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae, adding that the 11-page file was intended simply to brief military officials and did not contain sensitive information.

The investigation has yet to establish how the hackers were able to get in or whether they were acting with North Korean support. One theory is that they used an internet protocol address registered in China, a preferred route for North Koreans attempting to hack into files on foreign networks.

The US has 28,500 troops based in South Korea. David Oten, a spokesman for the US military in Seoul, said: "As a matter of policy we do not comment on operational planning or intelligence matters, nor would we confirm details pertaining to any security investigation."

The mishap occurred in one of the world's most militarily sensitive regions. Tensions between the two Koreas have grown this year amid Pyongyang's refusal to abandon its nuclear weapons programme. Although the three-year Korean war ended in 1953 the countries have never signed a peace treaty and are divided by one of the world's most heavily fortified borders.

Faced with the military might of the world's only superpower, North Korea appears to believe it can at least gain an advantage in cyberspace. It is thought to have been responsible for high-profile cyber attacks in July that caused web outages at the White House and its South Korean equivalent, the Blue House. Reports in South Korea said investigators had traced the Chinese IP address used in those attacks to North Korea's post and telecommunications ministry.

The communist state is believed to operate an internet warfare unit, staffed by between 500 and 1,000 people, that attempts to hack into US and South Korean military networks in search of classified information or to throw government institutions into chaos.

The revelation that such sensitive information may have fallen into North Korean hands has provoked outrage in sections of the South Korean media. In a stinging editorial, the Chosun Ilbo noted that tens of thousands of heavily armed South Korean and US troops were involved in a tense standoff along the two Korea's land and maritime borders.

"If North Korean hackers can infiltrate the south's cyber borders at will, then all of those troops and weapons protecting the country along the border are useless," it said.

[HisMajestyBOB]

They stole them, looked at them and realized "Holy shit if we attack we're really fucked", and took note.

[DisturbedPervert]

It always surprises me that North Korea has people with enough expertise in computers to pull these kinds of Ops off

[DGuller]

People in communist countries can be highly ingenuous, being able to do the absolute most with the least.  The downside is that they kind of have to be able to do that to accomplish anything at all.

[Martinus]

It always surprises me that North Korea has people with enough expertise in computers to pull these kinds of Ops off, or is our cyber-defense just that bad?

Why would that be surprising?

[CountDeMoney]

I dunno, that's sorta like John C Calhoun Community College getting Alabama's playbook.

[Ed Anger]

I dunno, that's sorta like John C Calhoun Community College getting Alabama's playbook.

[jimmy olsen]

It always surprises me that North Korea has people with enough expertise in computers to pull these kinds of Ops off, or is our cyber-defense just that bad?

Why would that be surprising?

How much exposure to modern computer technology do you think they get in North Korea? Most people in that country probably haven't seen anything fancier than a radio or black & white tv.

[DGuller]

How much exposure to modern computer technology do you think they get in North Korea? Most people in that country probably haven't seen anything fancier than a radio or black & white tv.

The average North Korean probably barely knows what PC is, but I'm sure that NK government has plenty of computer people in its employ.  You don't need millions of computers and computer users to hack into Pentagon.

[Neil]

or is our cyber-defense just that bad?

This.

It's hard to make a computer network secure when the idiots operating it will open any attachment they get, and click on banner ads telling them that they've won a free iPhone.

[dps]

or is our cyber-defense just that bad?

This.

It's hard to make a computer network secure when the idiots operating it will open any attachment they get, and click on banner ads telling them that they've won a free iPhone.

Yeah.  I bet even most people with top-secret clearance are dumb enough to make their passwords stuff like their wife's first name or their birthday.

[DGuller]

To be fair, the whole password thing is idiotic.  At my work, we have to change the password every month, and use a couple of special characters.  IMO, that just makes things much worse. 

How are you supposed to remember the password if you change it frequently?  Using some familiar theme, of course.  And how are you going to remember all those stupid characters you need to use for password "strength"?  Just tack the same thing on to the end or something.  That's some real security there  .

[KRonn]

Yeah, NK can train computer specialists, no surprise given that it's likely a big government commitment. It may be a bit surprising since they must have fewer people to choose from given that few have computers, but the govt has everything, and can train people to do it. Too bad though, that the nation is still run as a Stalinist type slave labor camp. So far they can't seem to resolve that, nor do the powers that be want to change that, of course.