WSJ: N. Korea Becoming 'World's Most Dangerous Hacking Machine'

From News Max.com (Apr. 19):

North Korea's cyber army has become a sophisticated and dangerous hacking machine — and "the whole world needs to take notice," The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

According to the Journal, the rogue nation's fingerprints have shown up in an increasing number of cyberattacks, the skill level of its hackers has vastly improved and their targets are more worrisome.

"The whole world needs to take notice," John Hultquist, director of intelligence analysis at cybersecurity firm FireEye Inc., told the Journal.

The firm now ranks North Korea among the world's mature hacking operations, the Journal reported — noting that as recently as March, suspected North Korean hackers appear to have infiltrated Turkish banks and invaded computer systems in the run-up to the Winter Olympics.

Experts tell the Journal that North Korea has been showing surprising levels of originality in its coding and techniques — and a willingness to go after targets such as central banks and point-of-sale systems. [read more]

Hopefully when the Korean summit happens this behavior will stop.