“The Interview,” a movie that depicts an assassination attempt of North Korean Leader, Kim Jong Un, has prompted threats on the U.S. from North Korea.
A cyber attack on Sony Pictures that took place Nov. 24 has been linked to North Korea. This threat led to Sony cancelling the Dec. 25 release of “The Interview” in theaters.
National Security is concerned with an even bigger problem – the possibility of North Korea bringing down the U.S. national grid system.
“At first, North Korea wasn’t assessed to have the capability of such an electronic attack. But U.S. intelligence sources said the hacking increases the threat of an attack on the nation’s life-sustaining, critical infrastructure. The hacking attack may have been a practice run for North Korea’s elite cyber-army in a long-term goal of being able to cripple telecoms and energy grids in rival nations,” experts said.
U.S. intelligence has discovered a North Korean unit, Bureau 121, comprised of 3,000 individuals was responsible for the attack on Sony.
Peter Pry, executive director of the congressional advisory task force on national and homeland security, believes North Korea worked through a proxy in another country that is more technically capable.
“Bureau 121, which is equivalent to the U.S. Cyber Command, is oriented strictly for offensive purposes. North Korea has no civilian Internet, and so there is nothing it has to defend from a cyber attack from outside the country. North Korea’s critical infrastructures, like the electric power grid, are not hooked into the Web and, therefore, cannot be hacked or cyber attacked from the outside.”
“Russia and China similarly have isolated their critical infrastructures from cyber attack, and they have hardened their grids against a nuclear electromagnetic pulse attack as well. On the other hand, the U.S. and its allies are vulnerable due to their interconnectivity to the Web. While China and Russia have the capability to black out the U.S. national power grid through a cyber attack, it is unlikely that North Korea has such advanced cyber attack capabilities, Pry said”
Pry noted that North Korea’s Bureau 121 operates out of China and this unit would have needed help from another country for cyber attacks since North Korea does not have direct access to the internet.
Michael Rogers, National Security Agency Director Administrator, told Congress that China could in fact shut down the U.S. “China, along with one or two other countries, has the capability to launch a cyber-attack that could shut down the electric grid system in parts of the U.S.,” Rogers said.
“Russia and China or someone may already have developed the cyber equivalent of the atomic bomb. The United States needs to be prepared for everything,” Pry added.
