North Korean defector says country’s hackers are handpicked by military, among the pampered elite

According to defectors, North Korea is pouring all of its resources into the development of a sophisticated cyber-warfare cell called Bureau 121. 

The group claims the cell is composed of the most talented computer experts in the poverty-stricken, isolated state, and that it is part of the General Bureau of Reconnaissance, an elite spy agency run by the military. The cell allegedly runs state-sponsored hacking missions, which are used by the Pyongyang government to spy on or sabotage enemies.

Much of the country’s active cyber-warfare capabilities are aimed at South Korea. This includes last year’s attack on 30,000 PCs at South Korean banks and broadcasting companies. A few months later, the South Korean government’s online presence was attacked, with the president’s website defaced with a banner reading “Long live General Kim Jong Un, president of reunification” across its page.

The attacks were determined to be slightly unsophisticated, as they used rudimentary, though obviously effective, malware dubbed “DarkSeoul.”

It appears, though, that of late the government has begun to branch out on its list of targets. This includes Pyongyang’s supposed hack into computers at Sony Pictures Entertainment. The company, a unit of Japan’s Sony Corp, will be distributing the movie “The Interviewer”, a forthcoming comedy featuring a plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The country has described the film as an “act of war.” You can read more about the hack via the article, North Korea allegedly hacked Sony Pictures over geopolitical satire film. 

According to Jang Se-yul, who studied with other hackers at North Korea’s military college for computer science (aka the University of Automation) before defecting to the South six years ago, skilled computer experts are among the most talented and rewarded people in North Korea.

“For them, the strongest weapon is cyber. In North Korea, it’s called the Secret War,” Jang said.

Jang explained that one of his friends works in an overseas team of the unit, though he purports himself as an employee of a North Korean trading firm. Back at home, this friend and his family have been given a large, state-allocated apartment in an upscale part of Pyongyang. 

“No one knows . . . his company runs business as usual. That’s why what he does is scarier,” Jang said. “My friend, who belongs to a rural area, could bring all of his family to Pyongyang. Incentives for North Korea’s cyber experts are very strong . . . they are rich people in Pyongyang.”

Jang explains the hackers in Bureau 121 are made up of about 100 students who graduate from the five-year military university. Some 2,500 individuals apply for places at the university each year, which is located on a campus in Pyongyang, behind barbed wire. 

“They are handpicked,” said Kim Heung-kwang, a former computer science professor in North Korea who defected to the South in 2004, in reference to the hackers. “It is a great honor for them. It is a white-collar job there and people have fantasies about it.”

Via Reuters