Recent investigations have uncovered that North Korea is bypassing international sanctions by working on major international television shows. This discovery provides a rare peek into the secretive state’s digital operations and underscores the regime’s use of skilled IT workers to finance its activities.
What’s Happening & Why This Matters
Cybersecurity researcher Nick Roy stumbled upon a misconfigured cloud server in North Korea that contained thousands of animation files. The files include videos and production notes from major TV shows like Amazon Prime Video’s Invincible superhero series and a children’s anime on Max (formerly HBO Max). The exposed server, found with a North Korean IP address, was regularly updated until it mysteriously ceased activity at the end of February.
The server was open to the internet without requiring a username and password which allowed unrestricted access to the files it contained. North Korea is deeply secretive to most of the world. The country, lead by the Kim Jung-Un, is politically, socially, and economically isolated. This incident sheds light on North Korea’s cyber tactics and capabilities to circumvent sanctions and raise funds. The implications of these findings are significant, illustrating the sophistication of North Korea’s digital exploits. Can North Korean IT workers infiltrate foreign companies? Carry out unauthorized activities? Independent nations’ officials are increasingly alarmed and are sounding warnings loudly.
TF Summary: What’s Next
The incident opens up questions about the effectiveness of international sanctions and the oversight of outsourced production in sensitive industries like entertainment. There could be tighter security measures and more stringent monitoring of international IT contracts and digital security practices to prevent further breaches. This episode raises the stakes for governments and corporate entities about stealth capabilities of state threat actors that want to exploit global infrastructures.