Sony attack opens new front in cyber warfare, say North Korean defectors
Hacking attack on film studio could have been dry run for cyberstrikes against infrastructure
The hacking attack on Sony Pictures might 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, defectors from the isolated state said.
Non-conventional capabilities such as cyberwarfare and nuclear technology were the weapons of choice for the impoverished North to match its main enemies, they said.
Obsessed by fears that it will be over-run by South Korea and the United States, North Korea has been working for years on the ability to disrupt or destroy computer systems that control vital public services such as telecoms and energy utilities, according to one defector.
"North Korea's ultimate goal in cyberstrategy is to be able to attack the national infrastructure of South Korea and the United States," said Kim Heung-kwang, a defector who was a computer science professor and says he maintains links with the community in his home country.
"The hacking of Sony Pictures is similar to previous attacks that were blamed on North Korea and is a result of training and efforts made with the goal of destroying infrastructure," said Kim, who came to the South in 2004.
The North's most successful cyberattack to date may be the hacking at Sony that led to the studio cancelling a film on the fictional assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.