There are times when a coincidence only raises suspicions, and the collapse of North Korea's internet yesterday fits that perfectly. After an unstable weekend, the country's four official networks vanished for nearly ten hours. President Obama spoke of a "proportional response" to what was the attack against Sony, raising the possibility of an operation backed by official resources…
North Korea is back in the news, but not because of war threats to its neighbors, nuclear tests, or rocket launches, but because of the internet. Or perhaps we should say 'its' internet. North Korea's situation regarding the web is quite peculiar. In total, there are only four official networks, which maintain a fragile (and highly regulated) connection to the outside world through Chinese infrastructure. In fact, North Korea has barely 1,024 IP addresses, which partly helps us visualize its connection capacity. Following the cancellation of The Interview by Sony Pictures, President Barack Obama openly accused North Korea last Friday of being responsible for the attack on the company, and promised a "proportional response." During the weekend, the general North Korean connection suffered several jolts, and shortly after four in the afternoon (UTC) yesterday, North Korea disappeared from the internet.
The theories have been many in the nine and a half hours the interruption lasted. At the top of the list is an official attack by the United States, the "proportional response" mentioned by the president. There is also speculation about Chinese intervention, placing a temporary stopper to indicate its repudiation of the whole affair. Some experts noted that North Korea can interrupt its connection as a prelude to a more advanced attack. Or from a simple point of view, North Korea may have been the victim of a classic DDoS attack organized by private elements. Dyn Research representatives lean toward DDoS, and if we take into account the ambiguous responses given by White House spokespeople, it's not hard to imagine military resources bombarding the North Korean connection.
Now, what value does all this have? To tell the truth, an attack on North Korea's connection capacity does not go beyond the symbolic. I imagine a fraction of the elite has been grumbling in the corners for a while, but the internet is not part of the life of the average North Korean, quite the opposite. If we follow the little information that leaks from there, there are two much more critical priorities: getting food, and not ending up on the wrong sidewalk with the authorities. Most likely, if North Korea was truly responsible (whether partially or totally) for the attack on Sony, the operation was carried out outside the country, either in China or another region. As expected, North Korea promised retaliation, so there will be another chapter in this novel very soon.
