North Korea hits out at Japan as cyber arms race heats up

North Korea has condemned plans by the Japanese military to develop a counter-attack computer virus as symptomatic of Tokyo’s “war hysteria”, with an analyst warning the move could fuel a cyber arms race.

The Japanese government announced this month that it is planning to create malware designed to break into an enemy’s computer systems and cripple its military forces’ ability to communicate and launch attacks against Japan.

Tokyo has emphasised that the new cyber weapon, to be developed by private companies, will be solely for defence and not be used in a pre-emptive attack.

Sensing that the malware is being created with North Korea in mind, state media this week said the plan is “nothing but a dangerous project of a war-thirsty state and aggression-minded nation”.

The Korea Central News Agency said Japan is becoming “more undisguised in its war hysteria with every passing day” and, pointing to Japan’s invasion of a number of Asian countries in the early decades of the last century, claimed that Tokyo is planning “overseas expansion” and another “war of aggression”.

Lance Gatling, a security analyst and founder of Tokyo-based Nexial Research Inc., said the North Korean accusations are “probably the worst example of the pot calling the kettle black that I have ever heard.”

“North Korea has a surprisingly advanced cyber warfare capability and they have put a tremendous amount of effort and money into this area for a small and poor country”, he told The Telegraph.

Experts believe that the Reconnaissance General Bureau, the North’s primary foreign intelligence service, has as many as 6,000 skilled hackers in its armoury and that they are second only to Russia in terms of the amount of time they need to infiltrate even well-defended computer systems.

And the North has used that skill to its advantage.

In October, North Korean hackers were suspected of accessing 30 computers in South Korea to steal top-secret data on next-generation fighter aircraft and other weapons systems. Less than eight weeks later, hackers obtained the addresses and personal details of nearly 1,000 defectors from a refugee resettlement centre in the South.

The hackers are also helping to fund the North Korean regime, with cybersecurity firm FireEye concluding last year that the Apt38 hacking group stole $571 million from a Japanese bitcoin exchange in January 2018 as well as $81 million from the central bank of Bangladesh in 2016.

Analysts have also traced the global 2017 WannaCry cyber attack - which cost Britain’s National Health Service £92 million and forced 19,000 appointments to be cancelled - back to North Korea.

Mr Gatling warns, however, that the introduction of any new Japanese cyber defence measures may very well lead to further escalation by North Korea.

“This is already an arms race and Japan is now taking this threat much more seriously than they have in the past”, he said. “The thorny dilemma that Japan faces is that escalation can take us into uncharted territory.

“The North could target Japanese companies instead of the government in retaliation, for example, and I’m not sure that companies here are ready for that.

“There is also serious concern here in the run-up to the Tokyo Olympic Games next year”, he added. “A hacking attack would have serious consequences on transportation networks, the power grid, communications, public safety and even things like digital advertising.

“Can you imagine if hackers got into the digital signage for the opening ceremony of the Olympics and started putting out North Korean propaganda?” Mr Gatling added. “It doesn’t bear thinking about”.