North Korea is barely connected to the global internet. But it’s trying to step up its hacker game by breaking into hostile networks, according to a new Pentagon report.
“North Korea probably has a military computer network operations (CNO) capability,” assesses the Pentagon’s latest public estimate (.PDF) of the military threat from North Korea.
So far, suspected North Korean cyber efforts are more like vandalism and espionage than warfare — as with most so-called “cyberattacks” not related to the U.S./Israeli Stuxnet worm. But the Pentagon believes Pyongyang is going to lean into network attacks in the future, largely out of necessity.
“Given North Korea’s bleak economic outlook, CNO may be seen as a cost-effective way to modernize some North Korean military capabilities,” the report assesses. “The North Korean regime may view CNO as an appealing platform from which to collect intelligence.”
North Korea appears to be feeling its way around in the dark of the internet and seeing what it can get away with. Since 2009, the Pentagon says, the North Koreans are believed to have targeted the servers of a major South Korean bank to erase customer records and render its online services inaccessible. Pyongyang likely DDOS’d a bunch of South Korean government and private websites over the last several years. Just last month, while tensions on the Korean Peninsula spiked, Seoul accused Pyongyang of infecting tens of thousands of computers used by the South’s banking and television industries with malware.
Back in April, he website of the U.S. military command on the Korean peninsula briefly went offline — and fueled suspicion that Pyongyang was to blame. Interestingly, the Pentagon stops short of blaming North Korea for the outage.
All this is commensurate with what the Pentagon sees as a broader pattern in North Korea’s military development: developing its unconventional prowess — like nuclear weapons and experimental long-range missiles — to compensate for its aged, creaking conventional forces.
North Korea has one of the largest arsenals on the planet. It’s got a military of 950,000 personnel, mostly ground forces; 8,500 field artillery pieces; 4,100 tanks; maybe 100 short-range missile launchers; and more, mostly pointed at Seoul. But a lot of that stuff is decrepit crap, according to the Pentagon report.
Its most capable combat aircraft? Creaky MiG-29 and MiG-23 fighters. Its most recent aircraft acquisition? 1999, when it bought MiGs from — wait for it — Kazakhstan. The primary air tool to transport its (legitimately formidable) special-operations forces? “1940s vintage single engine, 10-passenger, bi-planes.” Its surface naval fleet? “Primarily of aging, though numerous, small patrol craft.” Most of Pyongyang’s conventional weapons haven’t been updated or upgraded since the 1970s.
The Korean People’s Army “fields primarily legacy equipment, either produced in, or based on designs of, the Soviet Union and China, dating back to the 1950s, 60s and 70s, though a few systems are based on more modern technology,” the report finds.
There are some major exceptions. Pyongyang’s air-defense systems are upgraded relatives of Russia’s intimidating S-300 system. It’s going full speed ahead with efforts at an intercontinental ballistic missile. Its submarine fleet is one of the world’s largest. Kim Jong-un is down with Dennis Rodman.
Significantly, the report does not back up a recent Defense Intelligence Agency assessment that North Korea might — might — be able to mount a nuclear warhead atop its missiles. The report says the North’s working on it, not that it’s shrunk a nuke down to sufficiently small size.
But even with the North’s longstanding its “Military First” national strategy, its paltry economy doesn’t provide Pyongyang with enough money to upgrade and modernize. Hence the emphasis on nukes — and network intrusions.
“North Korea has invested in a modern nationwide cellular network,” the report notes. “Telecommunication services and access are strictly controlled, and all networks are available for military use, if necessary.” LINK
Posts
