When Hacking is a Form of Statecraft

Article:  Johnson, Kevin. “'Criminal Syndicate with a Flag': North Korean Intel Operatives Charged in Hacking Campaign.” USA Today. Gannett Satellite Information Network, February 17, 2021. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/02/17/us-charges-north-korean-intel-operatives-global-hacking-campaign/6781478002/.

On February 17, 2021, the U.S. government charged three intelligence officials from the government of North Korea for participating in a global hacking campaign to steal $1.2 billion in crypto and regular currency.  According to the article, the investigation started after the 2014 Sony Pictures hack that led to the leaking of the movie The Interview but widened as investigators discovered what was described in the article as "a criminal syndicate with a flag representing the North Korean government."  The investigation also led to charges against a private citizen who was charged with organizing gangs of people using cloned ATM cards to steal millions of dollars and funnel it to the North Korean government.

This case differs from the usual understanding of who is a hacker and why they hack.  The usual stereotype of a hacker is a lone wolf who carries out attacks with the hope of doing damage or extorting money.  While the end goal in this case was money, it differs because the actual attackers weren't stealing the money for themselves.  Instead, they were government employees stealing money for the benefit of the government.   

The case also demonstrates how North Korea has become a real threat when it comes to hacking.  During the first decade of the 00s, North Korea was not seen as a threat when it came to hacking because it used destructive but simplistic attacks.  But, as one article put it, "North Korea is cultivating elite hackers much like other countries train Olympic athletes, according to defectors and South Korean cyber and intelligence experts. Promising students are identified as young as 11 years old and funneled into special schools, where they are taught hacking and how to develop computer viruses."  The training appears to have paid off because North Korean attackers are now capable of quickly exploiting security glitches and making malware that can get by antivirus programs.(1)

(1) Timothy W Martin and Jonathan Cheng, “How North Korea's Hackers Became Dangerously Good,” L'Opinion (L'Opinion, April 22, 2018), https://www.lopinion.fr/edition/wsj/how-north-korea-s-hackers-became-dangerously-good-147906.