American Hacker Takes Down North Korea’s Internet After US Inaction
A few weeks ago, North Korea seemed to disappear from the internet. Many thought this was the work of another nation’s government. It turns out there was only one man behind all of it. The pseudonymous independent hacker goes by the handle P4X.
As reported by Wired, the anonymous hacker was responsible for a series of attacks that took down North Korea’s entire internet. He decided to take on the communist dictatorship after being targeted by some of the country’s hackers earlier this year.
It seems he was a victim of North Korea’s hacking campaign targeting security researchers. The attack targeted vulnerability research and development researchers to steal research and tools. After the attack, P4x was contacted by the FBI but couldn’t accept the government’s weak response.
North Korea’s internet blackout explained
Dissatisfied by the lack of any visible response from the US government, he decided to take matters into his own hands. He exploited vulnerabilities in the authoritarian nation’s systems to carry out his attack.
He launched “denial-of-service” attacks on servers and routers that support North Korea’s internet network. In just a few hours, he took down the nation’s entire network. For context, North Korea only has a few dozen websites. Most citizens didn’t notice the attack as they didn’t have access to the internet.
“I definitely wanted to affect the people as little as possible and the government as much as possible. I want them to understand that if you come at us, it means some of your infrastructure is going down for a while.”
Anonymous hacker, P4x
P4x has also launched a website on the dark web called FUNK Project, or the FU North Korea project. He is looking to recruit more and more fellow hacktivists to his cause, who have the required skillset and courage.
