Mounting A Response
"Their networks are under duress. This is consistent with a DDoS attack on their routers."
Doug Madory, director, Internet analysis, Dyn Research
"[...If it were indeed an attack] it would not take a tremendous effort to carry out." "It is one connection across the border... to overload the routing infrastructure would probably not require the efforts of a nation-state, it could be just one dedicated person."
James Cowie, chief scientist, Dyn Research, Internet performance management company
Not, after all -- if it was a response from the United States -- quite proportional to the damage by suspected North Korean hackers done to Sony with its threats and massive appropriation of files following a wipe-out of all Sony's data and systems. North Koreans do not have access to the World Wide Web; they have access to an internal and very limited type of Internet service. So they might have missed, for a very short period, a state cookery show and propaganda; they didn't miss much.
Ordinary North Koreans are unlikely to have noticed the outage as few of them have access to the internet
So perhaps the temporary shut-down wasn't the work of U.S. hacks turning tit-for-tat. Perhaps it was a mentor-country, skilled in hacking but preferring that its protegeNorth Korea not bring such attention to itself that delivered a little slap on its fat wrist. China has taken exception to reports circulating that it had been responsible for the online shutdown North Korea was treated to. Such reports were "speculative", with "no basis in reality", huffed Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying
"These reports themselves are extremely irresponsible, unprofessional and misleading." Whatever the source, it signified little, other than a light warning. And since Glorious Leader Kim Jong-un doesn't care to be scolded by anyone, it isn't likely to have the desired effect, that whoever was responsible at the bidding of the regime, cease and desist. Monday's blank nothingness for North Korea's Internet service was brief.
CloudFlare, based in San Fransisco, might have pronounced North Korea's Internet access "toast", with connections withdrawn, "showing that the North Korean network has gone away", according to Matthew Prince, but the situation was brief, and as a warning, questionable in the quality of its response to North Korea's far more serious incursion into Internet warfare.
The possibility that the blankout might have been caused by maintenance problems was set aside by experts like Mr. Madory who stated that such problems were not likely to have caused such a widespread, prolonged loss of connectivity. The Obama administration had appealed to China to help block North Korea's cyberattacks. So perhaps the rumours have some basis in fact.
The fear is that similar and broader attacks may be attempted on American targets, according to senior administration officials. Taking the example of South Korea's experience with a cyberattack on its nuclear plants where designs and manuals relating to two reactors and the personal information of 10,000 nuclear industry workers were published online.
"WHO AM I?" was the message to people living close to the reactors, warning them to clear out of the area for the next few months. Fearmongering and disruption of that magnitude is not easily overlooked. More details were threatened to be released by the hackers unless the government of South Korea closed down three reactors as of December 25. An unquestionably upgraded attack to the one the U.S. suffered.
In a classic understatement, Kim Min-Seok, a defence ministry spokesman for South Korea said: "The hacking of nuclear power plants is a serious problem", and most certainly it is, since it can shut down just about everything in an advanced technological society. State-owned Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. operates 23 nuclear reactors at four complexes, supplying one-third of the country's electricity.
Its week was inaugurated with a two-day drill focusing on fighting back against cyberattacks. The 21st Century has brought conflict to a new kind of battlefield, disabling and potentially catastrophic.
Labels: China, Conflict, Cyberwarfare, North Korea, South Korea, United States
posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, December 24, 2014
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