It appears that the hacking group Anonymous has managed to add to the tensions with North Korea. The hackers have allegedly breached some North Korean government-run websites, and then, according to eSecurity Planet, posted the following:
To Kim Jong-un: So you feel the need to create large nukes and threaten half the world with them? So you’re into demonstrations of power? Here is ours: We are inside your local intranets (Kwangmyong and others). We are inside your mailservers. We are inside your webservers.
Anonymous also said that they aren’t terrorists; they are the good guys.
What Anonymous has shown is that, even in the most tightly regulated countries and environments, cyberattacks can and will happen. Even more important, as the news websites warn of North Korea’s strategic missile operations, the Anonymous hack reminds us that there is a storm brewing in cyberspace and we need to pay attention. North Korea allegedly hacked into South Korea. North Korea also alleges that the United States has been conducting cyberattacks on its servers. Last week, there were reports that North Korea is training “cyberwarriors,” an indication that the country understands where the new battlefields are. Those battlefields are likely to be government and financial entities and the critical infrastructure, if past attacks are any indication.
What we may be seeing play out isn’t just a concern for defense departments, but for any organization that runs a network that keeps the country running.
We don’t know if North Korea (or South Korea or China or the U.S., for that matter) will conduct a cyberattack any time soon. However, we can be pretty sure that Anonymous will find a new target, and probably relatively soon. The question is, will you be prepared if that target is you?
