I'm the hacker that brought down North Korea's Internet for over a week. AMA

Re:I'm the hacker that brought down North Korea's Internet f... by JumpCrisscross on Wednesday June 19, 2024 @02:35AM (#40725471)

> Why isn’t he in prison?

Not an enforcement priority for the same reason a lot of domestic abuse goes unprotected: the victim is uncoöperative.

> going by the West’s own laws, or the spirit of them, anyway

Pyongyang and prosecutors would have to show he attacked a “protected computer” under the CFAA [1]. Given the two routers he allegedly overwhelmed were internet connected, that shouldn’t technically be hard under Trotter and Kane. But it would be a novel expansion of interstate commerce to encompass a country with whom Americans cannot legally trade, i.e. do commerce.

Put another way, North Korea’s status as a sanctioned country might put this into a legal grey area—it might not be criminally punishable. To settle that question would take a lot of prosecutorial resources. It’s not clear those are well spent on a case where the witness won’t coöperate.

[1] https://www.coreyvarma.com/2015/01/what-is-the-computer-frau...

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Re:I'm the hacker that brought down North Korea's Internet f... by teekert on Wednesday June 19, 2024 @02:59AM (#40725595)

I can imagine he did piss of some agencies? I mean other states could have mapped NK's whole infra, made a plan to take down NK's internet when "needed" (i.e. in case of some event)... Then some dude triggers it just for fun...

Some things are too big to just mess around with, I would feel extremely vulnerable having pulled such a stunt.

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Re:I'm the hacker that brought down North Korea's Internet f... by JumpCrisscross on Wednesday June 19, 2024 @03:10AM (#40725657)

> can imagine he did piss of some agencies

Sure. But OP asked why he isn’t being arrested. Plenty of people piss off the IC when they publish e.g. long-coveted (and independently discovered) zero days, or write an exposé on something an agency was hoarding for interagency political value.

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Re:I'm the hacker that brought down North Korea's Internet f... by spiritbear14 on Wednesday June 19, 2024 @03:11AM (#40725666)

or easily spy on ALL internet traffic, which they probably do anyway

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Re:I'm the hacker that brought down North Korea's Internet f... by saagarjha on Wednesday June 19, 2024 @02:57AM (#40725585)

Privateering is back, baby!

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Re:I'm the hacker that brought down North Korea's Internet f... by Sabinus on Wednesday June 19, 2024 @03:58AM (#40725951)

It's already back, Russian, Chinese and North Korean hacking groups receive state funding and cover.

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Re:I'm the hacker that brought down North Korea's Internet f... by JumpCrisscross on Wednesday June 19, 2024 @03:07AM (#40725646)

> Privateering is back

Good point: a final hurdle inhibiting criminality is his lack of profits. No disgorgeable gains. That means you’re only left with damages, which again, requires the victim’s coöperation to assess.

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Re:I'm the hacker that brought down North Korea's Internet f... by sim7c00 on Wednesday June 19, 2024 @03:20AM (#40725730)

there is a lot of 'looking the other way' when it comes to people hacking 'adversaries'. Just look at people going at russia's network now. western authorities arent exactly busy trying to stop that. i imagine similar priorities for NK, china and other places.

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