Originally Posted By: [LoD
Rainman]
Originally Posted By: [LoD
Hexen]nity. It's very unlikely that this is endorsed by the Chinese government however, since they don't like that North Korean regime any more than we do.


That's not correct. China has already assisted North Korea in numerous hacks. They have been known for providing proprietary software to North Korea, as well as China training Koreans on advanced blackhat techniques. This is well documented in the security industry.

Here is an article from 2013 talking about it:
http://www.voanews.com/content/north-koreas-world-class-cyber-attacks-coming-from-china/1795349.html

There are a lot more articles you can find if you tell google to ignore any news from December 2014, and type in "China Helps NK Hack". If you don't ignore news from December 2014 you will only find articles relating to an anonymous government employee who is working on the Sony hacks saying that China was involved.


I was referring to the Chinese government there (ie the party), not China in the broader sense. The question here is whether Chinese involvement in North Korean cyber attacks is state sponsored. The article equates the inaction of the Chinese government in not stopping North Korean activities as an endorsement of those activities. I wouldn't necessarily make that assumption. Unfortunately for that position, it's perfectly consistent with the Chinese government's response to hacking in general. They plausibly deny it to cloak their own state sponsored industrial espionage.

The reason I doubt the Chinese government is actively helping North Korean hacking is because they have nothing to gain, and a lot to lose, from North Korea being able to project any power.