Cyber attacks…

Some of the DPRK’s web pages went down for a couple of days. According to North Korea Tech:

North Korea’s state-run news agency accused the U.S. and its allies of being behind a series of cyberattacks that have forced its web sites offline for much of the last two days.

The report represents the first recognition by North Korean state media of the cyberattacks.

The handful of web sites based in the country became difficult or impossible to connect to two days ago with no explanation. North Korean web sites routinely go offline for periods of a few hours or up to a day, but this was the first time that all of the country’s web sites went offline at the same time.

Here is what KCNA had to say:

KCNA Blasts US and Its Allies’ Cyber Attacks

Pyongyang, March 15 (KCNA) — There are very disturbing developments against the backdrop of the ever mounting moves of the U.S. and its allies to stifle the DPRK.

Intensive and persistent virus attacks are being made every day on internet servers operated by the DPRK. These cannot be construed otherwise than despicable and base acts of the hostile forces consternated by the toughest measures taken by the DPRK after launching an all-out action.

What should not be overlooked is that such cyber attack is timed to coincide with the madcap Key Resolve joint military exercises being staged by the U.S. and other hostile forces.

It is nobody’s secret that the U.S. and south Korean puppet regime are massively bolstering up cyber forces in a bid to intensify the subversive activities and sabotages against the DPRK.

The DPRK will never remain a passive onlooker to the enemies’ cyber attacks that have reached a very grave phase as part of their moves to stifle it.

It is ridiculous, indeed, for the hostile forces to mount such virus attacks on the DPRK’s internet servers, much upset by the all-out action of its army and people to defend the sovereignty of the country and the nation.

They are seriously mistaken if they think they can quell the DPRK’s voices of justice through such base acts.
The U.S. and its allies should be held wholly accountable for the ensuing consequences.

Just what kind of cyber attack was launched? Renesys offers some data (via North Korea Tech):

We observed disruptions in North Korean Internet connectivity beginning at 00:59:30 UTC on 13 March 2013. At this time, North Korea’s four networks were very briefly removed from the global routing table (chart lower left). When the routes were restored, one of the four networks was routed over Intelsat, while the other three were routed over China Unicom. After a few hours, all networks were once again routed over China Unicom. For about two hours starting at 22:40 UTC on 13 March, all four networks disappeared for a second time from the global routing table. Later on 14 March, we saw Intelsat again appear as a provider for one of the networks for several hours.

Despite such routing instabilities, North Korean networks were generally available in the global routing table. However, when we look at our active measurements (i.e., traceroutes) into North Korea during this time, we see a significant drop-off in successful responses, suggesting a loss of connectivity not visible in routing data alone (chart lower right).

See the Renesys web page for charts.

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