 Cyber Conflict Module 9 North Korean Cyber Strategy Once you have completed the readings, lecture, activity, and assessment, you will be able to articulate why North Korea relies on such asymmetric military capabilities as cyber technology. Welcome to Cyber Conflict Module 9. So far in the course, we have focused on Russia as a major adversary in the area of cyber conflict. Clearly, Russia poses a great threat, but other countries are cause for concern in the world of cyber as well. In this module, we will look at North Korea and its cyber strategy. In October 2014, an extraordinary event in the history of cyber conflict occurred when a nation state mounted a cyber attack against a private corporation. Kim Young-un, leader of North Korea, ordered an attack on Sony Pictures as revenge for Sony's release of the motion picture The Interview. The action comedy film about two journalists who arrange an interview with North Korea's leader and are then recruited by the CIA to assassinate him depicts the North Korean leader as shy and unsure of himself, enamored with Western culture, and desperate for his father's approval. The North Korean Central News Agency stated that North Korea would retaliate sternly as Sony Pictures released the film, describing the movie as a quote, blatant act of terrorism in war. Sony delayed the release for about two months, but eventually released the film on December 25th. About a month before the release, a group self-named The Guardians of Peace hacked into Sony Pictures Corporation and leaked numerous internal emails, employee records, and other correspondence to embarrass the company. A few weeks later, the hackers threatened to attack any theaters showing the film. In mid-December, the FBI formally accused North Korea of executing the attack based on direct evidence that the agency had collected. What would motivate a sovereign state like North Korea to mount a cyber attack against a private corporation over an unflattering depiction of its leader? To answer that question, we must look at Kim Young-Un's role as supreme leader of the country. North Korea's supreme leader is basically considered by his loyalist as an earth-bound deity. As such, he demands complete allegiance in exchange for protection from the outside world. Allowing the country's citizens to see him in a negative light could threaten his legitimacy and rule. In fact, a New York Times article covering the Sony hack stated that one of North Korea's chief cyber program objectives is to protect the images of the country and its leader. The article noted that, similar to how North Korea attacked Sony, the country had attacked a British broadcasting company station after executives had announced plans for a documentary about North Korean's kidnapping of a British nuclear scientist. The readings for this module point out that beyond protecting the image of the country and its leader, North Korea's cyber capabilities also provide an asymmetric supplement to its military operations in times of peace and war. The most likely location of a conflict involving North Korea is the Korean Peninsula. It's to combine U.S. and South Korean force. The United States has about 35,000 military personnel in South Korea, but we would need to quickly send reinforcements if hostilities broke out. North Korea realizes this and the country also believes that the United States has become over-reliant on satellite communications and other information technologies. As a result, North Korea likely has plans to target both logistic and command and control systems to prevent the United States from quickly providing the needed reinforcements. Such a delay would provide North Korean forces enough time to overwhelm the existing enemy forces and dig in for a lengthy war, something that the United States does not want to involve itself in. North Korea appears to be accelerating its programs for training cyberwarriors, which is quite economical compared to developing conventional weaponry. The CIA's World Factbook estimates that North Korea's gross domestic product is roughly $40 billion, one-tenth the size of our F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program, and a drop in the bucket of our own GDP. North Korea views cyber-programmed development as a way to level the playing field and ultimately neutralize the United States' technological advantage. As an example of this effort, North Korea scours its country for its most promising students and then sends them to schools with specially designed cyber operations curricula. In 2003, after witnessing the United States' shock and awe campaign against Saddam Hussein's government in Iraq, Kim Young-un's father, Kim Young-il, is said to have warned his generals that, quote, if warfare was about bullets and oil until now, in the 21st century it is about information, end quote. With suffocating economic sanctions and a stagnated economy, North Korea is unlikely to ever pose a conventional military threat to the United States. However, given the low cost of developing and maintaining cyber capability, we likely will continue to see North Korea's cyber attacks against our interests and allies. Quiz Question 1 – True or False North Korea is believed to have attacked Sony Pictures Corporation as retribution for Sony Pictures investments in South Korea. The answer is False. Quiz Question 2 – Which of the following are reasons that North Korea tends to rely on asymmetric attacks against adversaries? Note – Two of the following answers are correct. A – North Korea finds traditional attack methods too predictable and ineffective. B – North Korean leaders believe that asymmetric attacks are less likely to lead to war. C – Asymmetric attacks allow North Korean leaders to punch above their weight. D – North Korea's leadership is actively attempting to privatize its economy and seeks to avoid negative publicity. Answer – B and C are correct. North Korean leaders believe that asymmetric attacks are less likely to lead to war. Asymmetric attacks allow North Korean leaders to punch above their weight. The activity for this module asks that using software like PowerPoint or Keynote build a presentation about North Korea, providing the following information. Note the country's annual gross domestic product GNP from the CIA's World Factbook. Provide interesting facts about the country, including the size of its population, military, industrial production, and agriculture output. Note how many people have access to the Internet. Compare the information to that of South Korea. Consider the difference and similarities of the two countries.