 The Global Cyber Threat Environment, Module 14, North Korean Cyber Operations Background. Objectives. Once you have completed the readings, lecture, activity and assessment, you will be able to describe the reasons for North Korea's cyber attack on Sony Pictures. Articulate how North Korea would likely use its cyber capabilities against the United States if hostilities broke out on the Korean Peninsula. Welcome to the Global Cyber Threat Environment, Module 14. This lecture focuses on North Korea's cyber strategy. Because of North Korea's economic isolation and inability to develop a modern economy, the country has traditionally relied on asymmetric means to level the playing field with its adversaries. We know that the country now invests heavily in cyber technology as it provides an asymmetric supplement to its economic, diplomatic and military operations in times of both peace and war. With regard to use of cyber technology in peacetime diplomatic operations, consider North Korea's October 2014 cyber attack on Sony Pictures Corporation. Kim Young-un, leader of North Korea, is thought to have ordered the attack 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 in a highly embarrassing light, shy and unsure of himself, enamored by Western culture, and desperate for his father's approval. The North Korean Central News Agency stated that North Korea would retaliate sternly if Sony Pictures released the film, describing the movie as a 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. When it comes to traditional military capabilities, however, North Korea is certainly no match for the technologically superior United States. North Korea has thus incorporated cyber-technology tactics into its military plans. The most likely location of a U.S.-North Korean conflict is the Korean Peninsula. And although the United States has about 35,000 military personnel in South Korea, we would need to quickly send reinforcements if hostilities broke out. North Korea realizes this and also believes that the United States has become over-reliant on satellite and other information. As a result, North Korea likely has plans to target both logistic and command and control systems so that any needed reinforcements would be delayed. Such delay would provide North Korea with enough time to overwhelm existing enemy forces and dig in for a lengthy war, something that the United States would rather avoid. In preparation for this potential future engagement, North Korea appears to be accelerating its programs for training cyber-warriors, which is quite economical compared to developing expensive 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-program 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 Jong-un's father, Kim Jong-il, is said to have warned his generals that if warfare was about bullets and oil until now, in the 21st century, it is about information. 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 perceived success of its cyber operations and the low cost of developing and maintaining such cyber capabilities, Kim Jong-un will likely accelerate investment in cyber technologies and the United States will likely continue to experience North Korean cyber attacks against our own and our allies' interests. Quiz question one, true or false. North Korea's cyber attack on Sony Pictures was considered by most experts to be the opening salvo in North Korea's long-term bid to undermine U.S. cultural hegemony. A. True. B. False. The answer is B. False. Quiz question two, true or false. In the event that hostilities between the United States and North Korea break out on the Korean Peninsula, North Korea is likely to use cyber technology to execute asymmetric attacks on U.S. military logistics systems. A. True. B. False. The answer is A. True. Activity. How much do you know about the current U.S. military presence in South Korea? Visit the U.S. Forces Korea webpage. Using the information that you find there, develop a presentation describing various elements of the U.S. presence. Include the current commander of U.S. forces in Korea as well as the number of U.S. troops currently stationed in South Korea and where they are stationed. Also include a description of some of the military units in Korea. How many U.S. Air Force, Army, Navy, and Marine Corps personnel are in the country? Provide other interesting information as well.