North Korea loses Internet days after Barack Obama vows revenge over Sony hacks

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

North Korea loses Internet days after Barack Obama vows revenge over Sony hacks

North Korea’s access to the Internet has been hit with outages and is offline today, according to a network-monitoring company, days after the U.S. government accused the country of hacking into Sony Corp.’s files.

North Korea, which has four official networks connecting the country to the Internet — all of which route through China — began experiencing intermittent problems yesterday and today went completely black, according to Doug Madory, director of Internet analysis at Dyn Research in Hanover, New Hampshire.

U.S. President Barack Obama said last week that Sony Pictures Entertainment had suffered significant damage and vowed to respond. North Korea warned yesterday that any U.S. punishment over the hacking attack on would lead to a retaliation “thousands of times greater.” North Korea has said it doesn’t know the identity of the hackers — who call themselves “‘Guardians of Peace’’ — claiming responsibility for breaking into Sony’s computer network and divulging internal e-mail messages.

‘‘The situation now is they are totally offline,’’ Madory said. ‘‘I don’t know that someone is launching a cyber-attack against North Korea, but this isn’t normal for them. Usually they are up solid. It is kind of out of the ordinary. This is not like anything I’ve seen before.”

The attack on Sony’s computers exposed Hollywood secrets, destroyed data and caused the studio to cancel the release of “The Interview,” a comedy about a fictional assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The hackers rendered thousands of computers inoperable and forced Sony to take its entire computer network offline.

The outage probably isn’t a cut of a fiber-optic cable, which would be shown in an immediate loss of connectivity, and other possible explanations include a software meltdown on North Korea’s Web routers or denial-of-service hacking attacks, Madory said.

Marie Harf, a spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department, told reporters in Washington today she can’t confirm reports of cyber-attacks on North Korea and won’t say what steps the U.S. may take in response to the Sony attack.

[Tim/Mav 305]

I guess we have Hackers too. Probably teenagers. Amazing what they know.

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

I've read that China controls their internet. Either it's us or them.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

I've read that China controls their internet. Either it's us or them.

Not China.

China condemns cyberattacks, but says no proof North Korea hacked Sony

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

Not China.

China condemns cyberattacks, but says no proof North Korea hacked Sony

Then it might be us. Not sure how. My geek counterparts said Anonymous has been trying for a while to shut down NK to no avail.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Then it might be us. Not sure how. My geek counterparts said Anonymous has been trying for a while to shut down NK to no avail.

[lostinblue 1,989]

Not much to shut down .

[Karee 4,190]

Not much to shut down .

They're concerned about wasting energy.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Not much to shut down .

Apparently enough to hack into Sony.

[Karee 4,190]

Apparently enough to hack into Sony.

Maybe the Kim family has a history of candle making. Electricity is for rich imperialists.

[GandD 5,966]

Not much to shut down .

I love that picture.

[spookyturtle 9,466]

Is this from the Onion?

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Is this from the Onion?

No, this is real.

[Ban Hammer 13,345]

Maybe the Kim family has a history of candle making. Electricity is for rich imperialists.

maybe the kim family is the ultimate tree huggers.

[GandD 5,966]

He's an environmentalist at heart.