Original source: TechFlow
On February 21, the cryptocurrency exchange Bybit suffered a $1.5 billion hacker attack, once again putting the actions of the North Korean hacker group Lazarus Group in the spotlight.
In recent years, this organization has repeatedly succeeded, from the theft of KuCoin exchange to the theft of Ronin cross-chain bridge, and even the hacking of the personal wallet of the founder of Defiance Capital. The mastermind behind the scenes is this mysterious hacker organization.
You may be curious, as one of the most closed countries in the world, how did North Korea develop such amazing power on the digital battlefield?
In the traditional military field, it is difficult for North Korea to compete with the US-ROK alliance, but cyber warfare provides it with a strategic leverage that can move a thousand pounds with a single move.
So starting in the 1980s, the North Korean government spent a lot of effort on hacker training, code-named Secret War internally.
Jang Se-yul, a North Korean who defected to South Korea in 2007, previously studied at Mirim University (now renamed the University of Automation), North Koreas top engineering school. While at university, Jang and other hackers took courses offered by Bureau 121.
After graduation, Jang joined the North Korean governments Reconnaissance General Bureau, an elite spy agency under the 121st Bureau. It was then that he began to come into contact with the top hackers in the 121st Bureau.
Jang Se-yul later told Business Insider that North Koreas cyberwarfare threat was more real and dangerous than its nuclear threat. This is a silent war. The war has begun before a single shot has been fired, he said.
The question is, how can a country that is so poor and has so few resources make such a big effort to engage in cyber warfare?
Jang Se-yuls answer: Because it is very cheap to train a hacker.
Generally speaking, North Korea is divided into three major classes: basic masses (core class), complex masses (ordinary middle class), and remnants of hostile classes (hostile classes such as landlords and rich peasants), which are further divided into 56 classes. These class classifications are recorded in the resident ledger and used in the cadre recruitment process.
An Zan-il, chairman of the World Center for North Korean Studies, said that in the past, North Korean hackers also had to consider their occupational background, because if their loyalty to the party declined, it would pose a threat to the system.
It was not until the international community later imposed comprehensive sanctions on North Korea that North Koreas means of earning foreign exchange were blocked, and it could only illegally earn foreign exchange through cyber attacks.
This also opens up a special channel for cyber warfare talents, recruiting talents without any restrictions.
Jangs alma mater, the University of Automation, is the core base for training North Korean hackers. He said, Each class only recruits 100 students, but there are as many as 5,000 applicants.
It can be said that this is the PLUS version of the college entrance examination. Once the application is successful and you become a hacker, you can become one of the top 1% of North Korea, but the process is also extremely difficult.
Before these young hackers can become apprentices, they have to undergo nearly nine years of rigorous training, with the youngest starting training at the age of 17.
At school, they have six classes a day, each lasting 90 minutes, learning various programming languages and operating systems. They spend a lot of time every day analyzing programs such as Microsofts Windows operating system and studying how to break into the computer information systems of hostile countries such as the United States and South Korea.
In addition, their core mission is to develop their own hacking programs and computer viruses without having to rely on existing hacking programs from outside.
In Jangs opinion, North Koreas hackers are as skilled as the top programmers at Google or the CIA, and may even be better.
From the first day of their education, these black youngsters are given missions and goals, and are divided into different groups to focus on attacking different countries and regions, such as the United States, North Korea and Japan. Once the hackers are assigned to a specific country group, they will spend nearly two years undercover in the country, learning the local language and culture so that they can reveal no flaws in addition to technology.
Jang said that one of his friends worked for an overseas department of Bureau 121, but he was ostensibly an employee of a North Korean trading company. No one knew his true identity, and his company was operating normally.
Due to the particularity of cyber warfare, these young hackers can use the Internet freely and grasp the latest developments abroad at the first time. They are also well aware that their country is very closed and conservative, but this will not shake their patriotism and loyalty to the leader.
Even if they are forced to do so, or even offered a job at the South Korean presidential office, they will not betray their country, Jang said.
Of course, being a hacker means money and privilege.
Young hackers can earn up to $2,000 a month, twice as much as ambassadors abroad. In addition, they can get a luxury apartment of more than 185 square meters in the center of Pyongyang and move their families to the capital, which are undoubtedly extremely attractive conditions.
In a new era where keyboards replace missiles, the keyboards of young hackers will become the sword of Damocles for cryptocurrency.
