[ISN] N.K. hacking ability matches that of CIA, analyst says

[InfoSec News]

Forwarded from: William Knowles <wk at c4i.org>

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2005/06/03/200506030002.asp

By Lee Sun-young 
2005.06.03
(milaya at heraldm.com) 

North Korea has hundreds of well-trained cyber soldiers and its 
intelligence warfare capabilities are believed to have reached the 
level of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, a South Korean arms 
expert said yesterday. 

Computers are a rarity and Internet access is almost nonexistent for 
most people in the reclusive country, but Byun Jae-jung, researcher at 
a state-run Agency for Defense Development, believes that "North Korea 
is capable of cyber attacks on both the command and control system of 
the U.S. Pacific Command and the critical infrastructures of the U.S. 
mainland, such as electric power." 

"Our electronic warfare simulation indicates that North Korea's 
capability has reached a substantial level, unlike what is generally 
known to the outside world," Byun told the Defense Information 
Security Conference 2005 held yesterday at Korea University in Seoul. 
The conference is organized annually by the Defense Security Command 
and the Korea Information Security Agency. He said the simulation was 
based on reliable information from the DSC, but refused to give any 
details. 

According to him, the communist country since 1981 has been training 
about 100 hackers through an elite electronic warfare academy known as 
Mirim College and now operates a crack contingent of 500 or 600 cyber 
soldiers. The academy is believed to have changed its name from Mirim 
to Kim Il Military Academy and then to Pyongyang College. 

The North Korean hackers use Web servers from various countries, 
including the United States, to gather military information on South 
Korea, the United States and others and erode the online defense 
command network, he added. 

"The South Korean government spends only 2.5 percent of its 
information-related budget on information protection while the United 
States invests 8.8 percent," Byun said. 


 
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