Norks' internet goes TITSUP in possible DDoS attack

If the North Koreans really do have an elite hacking squad, it'll be twiddling its thumbs at the moment, as all internet activity in the country has gone dark in an outage that bears the hallmarks of a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. "In the last 24 hours the signal has been getting worse and worse and today it …

[Anonymous Coward]

The DDOS is not a news item

North, South and a few other usual suspects in the region throw these (and other nasties) at each other on a daily (if not hourly) basis.

The newsworthy item is that the upstream provider has failed to mitigate it. Or has decided not to which will make it even more interesting.

[Mark Jan]

Re: The DDOS is not a news item

North, South and a few other usual suspects in the region throw these (and other nasties) at each other on a daily (if not hourly) basis.

All South Korea do is reset the WiFi password.

[nsld]

I'm

so ronery........

You know the rest

[Harry the Bastard]

norks on

norks off

[Conundrum1885]

Hahahaha

Good one!

[wolfetone]

Missing statement from article

A North Korean spokesperson said "This blatent attack on our supreme DNS Servers, the same ones invented by our supreme leader Kim Jong Il, has affected our glorious kingdom quite badly. All 4 computers are no longer able to connect to the Internet.

[GitMeMyShootinIrons]

Re: Missing statement from article

"Quick! Supreme reader must reboot the modem!"

[SolidSquid]

Re: Missing statement from article

Have you tried Supremeing it off and on again?

[Stoneshop]

Re: Missing statement from article

All 4 computers are no longer able to connect to the Internet.

"The internet is unable to connect to our four glorious computers anymore."

("Fog in Channel, continent isolated")

[Smitty Werben Jueger Man Jenson]

Internet outage.

Will Kim have to wait between 8am and 5pm for the Comcast guy to show up?

[tkioz]

You know I wouldn't mind if they were kept off the 'net permanently. Though I'm sure their big brother (China) would bitch about it.

[masterofobvious]

Couldn't they have capability within China as well? Seems like a reasonable contingency

[Anonymous Coward]

They're trying to all simultaneously comment on the reg redesign.

[Captain DaFt]

I can just picture Little Un having a tantrum:

"Er Leg site is stirr Borrocks! That's the rast stlaw!" And starting to yank out cables in a frenzy.

[Primus Secundus Tertius]

Users little affected

Few ordinary North Koreans will be affected by these problems, as so few have Internet access.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Users little affected

Few ordinary North Koreans will be affected by these problems, as so few have Internet access.

If you're wondering what they do have then this may hold some clues.

[Ted Treen]

Re: Users little affected

Thanks for that link:- very interesting to read.

Have a festive beer!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Users little affected

Have a festive beer!

Ta muchly. Mine's a festive Wells Banana Bread.

[Vociferous]

Couldn't have happened to a nicer dictatorship.

Or should that be "wouldn't"?

[Fluffy Bunny]

Re: Couldn't have happened to a nicer dictatorship.

"Couldn't have happened to a nicer dictatorship"

The correct phrase is "Couldn't have happened to a more deserving dictatorship"

[Ben Tasker]

> If the North Koreans really do have an elite hacking squad, it'll be twiddling its thumbs at the moment,

Doubt it, it's generally accepted that if they do exist, they're based in China and not NK

[Anonymous Custard]

Or perhaps they're testing their last-minute re-addition of an offline mode to Elite:Dangerous?

[veti]

Here at the bottom end of the Pacific...

... my internet connection has been flaking out even more than usual over the past 3-4 days.

I'm pretty sure nothing in my home is being used to DDOS NK. So - coincidence, or collateral damage? It's entirely possible we share a router with the Norks somewhere upstream.

I'm suspecting collateral damage, just because it gives me someone to blame. Thanks a bunch, Obama. But of course I quite understand you have to avenge your paymasters at Sony.

[harmjschoonhoven]

Or ...

the North Koreans, paranoid as they are, airgapped themselves step by step.

[Andy Roid McUser]

made me giggle

'Possible DDoS'

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: made me giggle

Possible: Any probability between 0 and 1.

Probable (to 4 decimal places): Any probability between 0.5001 and 1.

Made me giggle too :-D

[stizzleswick]

The other view

Seeing as internet services in the PRC as well as the PRK are heavily censored, I view this as the ultimate version of censoring: the censors of the PRK can sit back and enjoy, the internet (and particularly the www) has been censored for them already... and free of charge.

They should consider handing out a free statue of Kim Yong Whichever to whoever did it!

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps it's just Kim Jong Un's Shopping List

Going to China over a low bandwidth connection?

[JustWondering]

So ...

... all three of their computers are down?

[Mark 85]

Maybe it's China doing it?

Since the NK's get their 'Net connection through China, per the article, I would think then that the Chinese would yelling about all the traffic coming through them. The last I heard, the Chinese aren't saying anything except for an announcement about "condemning" NK for the Sony data grab. Makes me wonder if they're behind this....

[Arctic fox]

Re: Maybe it's China doing it?

I agree Mark 85. The possibility that China has deliberately turned the tap off should not disregarded. What their motives might be is another matter entirely.

[skeptical i]

Maybe Li'l Un is still looking for the token?

*snrk* http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1996-05-02/

[JamesTQuirk]

Do you think it might have something "internal addressing system" being "hacked" last week ?, easy to switch off a country with that info ....

to quote from a press release, I seen somewhere, "http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/12/19/icann_stresses_critical_internet_systems_not_hacked/"

but just the info you would need .....

[Marco van Beek]

Maybe it is the other way around?

In a sort of "storm in channel, Europe cut off" kinda way. Maybe, just maybe, they are denying us access to their world famous cookery site.

[Anonymous Coward]

Tor node

A tor node in Holland That is on spam lists gets messed with ( www.stopforumspam.com/ipcheck/77.95.229.20 ) plus my be more. Then ddos in nork land . May be that some wanted to watch a film?

[PhilipN]

Gag!

I am, and there must be many others here who are, sickened at the sight of that overfed monstrosity of a humanoid when the vast majority of his countrymen are undernourished and, at this time of year, freezing.

[Chris_B]

Free Internet for All

Perhaps the hackers should have opened up the internet for all Norks to see rather than shut down something most have no access to anyway.

Now that would have really pissed of Kimmy

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Free Internet for All

"..should have opened up the internet.."

You meant laying cables to homes and setting up towers? Not my job :)

[Arachnoid]

North Korea admits they have a fibre problem

Kim Jong Un orders all residents to eat more cereal

[Tanuki]

I'm suspecting that the Norks have foolishly decided to change broadband-provider in the run-up to Christmas.

Either that or they've already got TalkTalk as their broadband-provider.

[bailey86]

Let's hope

Let's hope that it's not the USA who has carried this out. It would mean they really are run by the corporations - including (ironically) a Japanese one. This should be a matter for Sony to sort out - primarily by sorting out their IT.

[Peter Simpson 1]

Chinese CISCO routers

Guess that's what they get for believing the Chinese copies were "just as good as" the real Cisco kit...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Chinese CISCO routers

Thanks for the Advertrollment.

[Hero Protagonist]

Re: Chinese CISCO routers

My favorite new word of the day -- "Advertrollment" FTW!

[Alan Denman]

PR

As true as that dead girlfriend story ?

Any old crap becomes news for NK so the truth does get somewhat blurred.

[FunkyEric]

I was shocked to see

That the americans (allegedly) were removing all NORKS from the internet! I mean what are we meant to do for porn now?

[Ardbeg]

In other news...

After recent military exercises defense analysts suspect the North Korean military may have shrunk by as much as 75%. Connectivity issues with Adobe software is thought to be a major factor in the decline.

Icon because - it still works when the routers stop blinking.

[JamesTQuirk]

Re: In other news...

Yes, Well, even Fish learn to "School" to protect themself's, I think we should be looking @ subnetmask's, read a google translation of chinese webpage about freaking with them, scary stuff, if true ....