Noth Korea’s internet use surges, thwarting curbs & fuelling theft

WASHINGTON: North Korea has vastly expanded its use of the internet in ways that enable its leader, Kim Jong-un, to evade a “maximum pressure” US sanctions campaign and turn to new forms of cybercrime to prop up his government, according to a new study.
The study notes that since 2017 — the year US President Trump threatened “fire and fury like the world has never seen” against the country — the North’s use of the internet has surged about 300%. Nearly half that traffic now flows through a new connection in Russia, avoiding the North’s dependency on China.
The surge has a clear purpose, according to the report released on Sunday by Recorded Future, a group known for its examinations of how nations use digital weaponry: circumventing financial pressure and sanctions by the West. Over the past three years, the study concluded, North Korea has improved its ability to both steal and “mine” cryptocurrencies, hide its footprints in gaining technology for its nuclear programme and cyberoperations, and use the internet for day-to-day control of its government.
“Our concept of how to control the North’s financial engagement with the world is based on an image of the North that is fixed in the past,” said Priscilla Moriuchi, a former National Security Agency analyst who directed the study. The report said other nations like Iran are watching the North Korean model, and beginning to replicate it.