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51-530: The RGB is regarded as North Korea's primary intelligence and clandestine operations organ. Although its original missions have traditionally focused on clandestine operations such as commando raids, infiltrations and disruptions, the RGB has since come to control most of the known North Korean cyber capabilities, mainly under Bureau 121 or its speculated successor, the Cyber Warfare Guidance Bureau . It

102-434: A VPN or the dark web ) to mask their identities online and pose as criminals. Hacking can also have a broader sense of any roundabout solution to a problem, or programming and hardware development in general, and hacker culture has spread the term's broader usage to the general public even outside the profession or hobby of electronics (see life hack ). Reflecting the two types of hackers, there are two definitions of

153-715: A "unique" ability to infiltrate websites. American authorities believe that North Korea has military offensive cyber operations capability and may have been responsible for malicious cyber activity since 2009. As part of its sophisticated set-up, cells from Bureau 121 are believed to be operating around the world. One of the suspected locations of a Bureau 121 cell is the Chilbosan Hotel in Shenyang , China. South Korea has also repeatedly blamed Bureau 121 for conducting GPS jamming aimed at South Korea. The most recent case of jamming occurred on 1 April 2016. Bureau 121 consists of

204-541: A central timesharing system. The only kind of widespread hardware modification nowadays is case modding . An encounter of the programmer and the computer security hacker subculture occurred at the end of the 1980s, when a group of computer security hackers, sympathizing with the Chaos Computer Club (which disclaimed any knowledge in these activities), broke into computers of American military organizations and academic institutions. They sold data from these machines to

255-556: A comparison of the actual arrival times of local SEPTA trains to their scheduled times after being reportedly frustrated by the discrepancy. Security hackers are people involved with circumvention of computer security. There are several types, including: Hacker culture is an idea derived from a community of enthusiast computer programmers and systems designers in the 1960s around the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 's (MIT's) Tech Model Railroad Club (TMRC) and

306-413: A love of learning about technology. They restrict the use of the term cracker to their categories of script kiddies and black hat hackers instead. All three subcultures have relations to hardware modifications. In the early days of network hacking, phreaks were building blue boxes and various variants. The programmer subculture of hackers has stories about several hardware hacks in its folklore, such as

357-521: A love-hate relationship... They're kids who tended to be brilliant but not very interested in conventional goals It's a term of derision and also the ultimate compliment." Fred Shapiro thinks that "the common theory that 'hacker' originally was a benign term and the malicious connotations of the word were a later perversion is untrue." He found that the malicious connotations were already present at MIT in 1963 (quoting The Tech , an MIT student newspaper), and at that time referred to unauthorized users of

408-646: A mysterious "magic" switch attached to a PDP-10 computer in MIT's AI lab that, when switched off, crashed the computer. The early hobbyist hackers built their home computers themselves from construction kits. However, all these activities have died out during the 1980s when the phone network switched to digitally controlled switchboards, causing network hacking to shift to dialing remote computers with modems when pre-assembled inexpensive home computers were available and when academic institutions started to give individual mass-produced workstation computers to scientists instead of using

459-448: A positive sense, that is, using playful cleverness to achieve a goal. But then, it is supposed, the meaning of the term shifted over the decades and came to refer to computer criminals. As the security-related usage has spread more widely, the original meaning has become less known. In popular usage and in the media, "computer intruders" or "computer criminals" is the exclusive meaning of the word. In computer enthusiast and hacker culture,

510-632: A senior position in the RGB until 2014, and revealed much information about the Bureau's activities in a 2021 interview with the BBC. On October 31, 2017, two suspects were arrested by Public Security police in Beijing in an attempt to assassinate Kim Han-sol . They were part of a seven-man team sent by the RGB. On November 12, 2021, an alleged RGB agent led an operation in Japan to illegally obtain foreign currency to shore up

561-410: A specific date as a "National Day of Civic Hacking" to encourage participation from civic hackers. Civic hackers, though often operating autonomously and independently, may work alongside or in coordination with certain aspects of government or local infrastructure such as trains and buses. For example, in 2008, Philadelphia-based civic hacker William Entriken developed a web application that displayed

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612-462: A tendency to look down on and disassociate from these overlaps. They commonly refer disparagingly to people in the computer security subculture as crackers and refuse to accept any definition of hacker that encompasses such activities. The computer security hacking subculture, on the other hand, tends not to distinguish between the two subcultures as harshly, acknowledging that they have much in common including many members, political and social goals, and

663-521: Is a criminal financial gain to be had when hacking systems with the specific purpose of stealing credit card numbers or manipulating banking systems . Second, many hackers thrive off of increasing their reputation within the hacker subculture and will leave their handles on websites they defaced or leave some other evidence as proof that they were involved in a specific hack. Third, corporate espionage allows companies to acquire information on products or services that can be stolen or used as leverage within

714-615: Is a person skilled in information technology who achieves goals by non-standard means. The term has become associated in popular culture with a security hacker  – someone with knowledge of bugs or exploits to break into computer systems and access data which would otherwise be inaccessible to them. In a positive connotation, though, hacking can also be utilized by legitimate figures in legal situations. For example, law enforcement agencies sometimes use hacking techniques to collect evidence on criminals and other malicious actors. This could include using anonymity tools (such as

765-466: Is also common within the programmer subculture of hackers. For example, Ken Thompson noted during his 1983 Turing Award lecture that it is possible to add code to the UNIX "login" command that would accept either the intended encrypted password or a particular known password, allowing a backdoor into the system with the latter password. He named his invention the " Trojan horse ". Furthermore, Thompson argued,

816-409: Is done to get practical barriers out of the way for doing actual work. In special forms, that can even be an expression of playful cleverness. However, the systematic and primary engagement in such activities is not one of the actual interests of the programmer subculture of hackers and it does not have significance in its actual activities, either. A further difference is that, historically, members of

867-519: Is intended. However, because the positive definition of hacker was widely used as the predominant form for many years before the negative definition was popularized, "hacker" can therefore be seen as a shibboleth , identifying those who use the technically oriented sense (as opposed to the exclusively intrusion-oriented sense) as members of the computing community. On the other hand, due to the variety of industries software designers may find themselves in, many prefer not to be referred to as hackers because

918-455: The C compiler itself could be modified to automatically generate the rogue code, to make detecting the modification even harder. Because the compiler is itself a program generated from a compiler, the Trojan horse could also be automatically installed in a new compiler program, without any detectable modification to the source of the new compiler. However, Thompson disassociated himself strictly from

969-728: The General Staff Department (GSD) of the Korean People's Army (KPA). As of 2014, experts argued that "North Korea does not seem to have yet organized these units into an overarching Cyber Command." The RGB appears to report directly to the National Defence Commission , as well as Kim Jong-un as the supreme commander of the KPA. Until 2017, many North Korean spies were arrested in South Korea. But far fewer were arrested in

1020-645: The MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory . The concept expanded to the hobbyist home computing community, focusing on hardware in the late 1970s (e.g. the Homebrew Computer Club ) and on software ( video games , software cracking , the demoscene ) in the 1980s/1990s. Later, this would go on to encompass many new definitions such as art, and life hacking . Four primary motives have been proposed as possibilities for why hackers attempt to break into computers and networks. First, there

1071-582: The Internet as a means to spy on enemies and attack militarily superior opponents such as the United States and South Korea. Subsequently, students were sent abroad to China to participate in top computer science programs. The cyberwarfare unit was elevated to top priority in 2003 following the US invasion of Iraq . The structure of the RGB is as follows as of 2021: Reconnaissance missions are also partially overseen by

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1122-501: The North Korean economy by ordering two South Korean nationals to conduct a business that was against their official status of residence. On February 15, 2022, an upcoming UN report mentions that the RGB is involved in running several service-related industries throughout Cambodia. The foundations for North Korean cyber operations were built in the 1990s, after North Korean computer scientists returned from travel abroad proposing to use

1173-533: The North Korean government, meaning that units previously tasked with "political warfare, foreign intelligence, propaganda, subversion, kidnapping, special operations, and assassinations" were merged into one single organization. In August 2010, an RGB agent posing as a defector was caught by South Korean police for planning to assassinate Hwang Jang-yop , who had defected from North Korea in 1997. The previous month two North Korean spies had been imprisoned for plotting to murder Hwang. North Korea denied involvement, but

1224-493: The RGB manages clandestine operations and has six bureaus. Cyber operations are thought to be a cost-effective way for North Korea to maintain an asymmetric military option, as well as a means to gather intelligence; its primary intelligence targets are South Korea, Japan, and the United States. Bureau 121 was created in 1998. The activities of the agency came to public attention in December 2014 when Sony Pictures canceled

1275-470: The Soviet secret service, one of them in order to fund his drug addiction. The case was solved when Clifford Stoll , a scientist working as a system administrator, found ways to log the attacks and to trace them back (with the help of many others). 23 , a German film adaption with fictional elements, shows the events from the attackers' perspective. Stoll described the case in his book The Cuckoo's Egg and in

1326-524: The TV documentary The KGB, the Computer, and Me from the other perspective. According to Eric S. Raymond, it "nicely illustrates the difference between 'hacker' and 'cracker'. Stoll's portrait of himself, his lady Martha, and his friends at Berkeley and on the Internet paints a marvelously vivid picture of how hackers and the people around them like to live and how they think." The mainstream media 's current usage of

1377-456: The University of Automation, Pyongyang and spend five years in training. A 2021 estimate suggested that there may be over 6,000 members in Bureau 121, with many of them operating in other countries, such as Belarus, China, India, Malaysia, and Russia. While these specialists are scattered around the world, their families benefit from special privileges at home. Hacker A hacker

1428-646: The Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) were moved into the Reconnaissance General Bureau, namely the WPK's External Investigations and Intelligence Department ( Korean : 조선노동당 대외정보조사부 ), also known as Office 35, and the WPK's Operations Department, which was responsible for kidnapping foreign nationals during the Cold War . The RGB was established in 2009 to consolidate various intelligence and special operations agencies of

1479-464: The academic world started to take part in the programmer subculture of hacking. Since the mid-1980s, there are some overlaps in ideas and members with the computer security hacking community. The most prominent case is Robert T. Morris, who was a user of MIT-AI, yet wrote the Morris worm . The Jargon File hence calls him "a true hacker who blundered". Nevertheless, members of the programmer subculture have

1530-448: The beginning of the 1970s. An article from MIT's student paper The Tech used the term hacker in this context already in 1963 in its pejorative meaning for someone messing with the phone system. The overlap quickly started to break when people joined in the activity who did it in a less responsible way. This was the case after the publication of an article exposing the activities of Draper and Engressia. According to Raymond, hackers from

1581-485: The computer community began to differentiate their terminology. Alternative terms such as cracker were coined in an effort to maintain the distinction between hackers within the legitimate programmer community and those performing computer break-ins. Further terms such as black hat , white hat and gray hat developed when laws against breaking into computers came into effect, to distinguish criminal activities from those activities which were legal. Network news' use of

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1632-529: The computer security hackers: "I would like to criticize the press in its handling of the 'hackers,' the 414 gang , the Dalton gang, etc. The acts performed by these kids are vandalism at best and probably trespass and theft at worst. ... I have watched kids testifying before Congress. It is clear that they are completely unaware of the seriousness of their acts." The programmer subculture of hackers sees secondary circumvention of security mechanisms as legitimate if it

1683-451: The distinction, grouping legitimate "hackers" such as Linus Torvalds and Steve Wozniak along with criminal "crackers". As a result, the definition is still the subject of heated controversy. The wider dominance of the pejorative connotation is resented by many who object to the term being taken from their cultural jargon and used negatively, including those who have historically preferred to self-identify as hackers. Many advocate using

1734-407: The effective use of the knowledge (which can be to report and help fixing the security bugs, or exploitation reasons) being only rather secondary. The most visible difference in these views was in the design of the MIT hackers' Incompatible Timesharing System , which deliberately did not have any security measures. There are some subtle overlaps, however, since basic knowledge about computer security

1785-452: The following units as of 2019: Bureau 121 is the largest (more than 600 hackers) and most sophisticated unit in the RGB. According to a report by Reuters , Bureau 121 is staffed by some of North Korea's most talented computer experts and is run by the Korean military. A defector indicated that the agency has about 1,800 specialists. Many of the bureau's hackers are hand-picked graduates of

1836-641: The following years, apparently as the North started using new technologies rather than old-fashioned spying. In particular, high-profile defectors warned that Pyongyang had created a body of 6,000 skilled hackers . Bureau 121 Bureau 121 is a North Korean cyberwarfare agency, and the main unit of the Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB) of North Korea's military . It conducts offensive cyber operations, including espionage and cyber-enabled finance crime. According to American authorities,

1887-494: The later defector " Kim Kuk-song " said that he had personally directed the July 2010 operation. "Kim" also said "I can tell you that North Korean operatives are playing an active role in various civil society organisations as well as important institutions in South Korea.". A defector, a former senior colonel known by the pseudonym Kim Kuk-song, whose identity has been verified by the BBC , had

1938-464: The marketplace. Lastly, state-sponsored attacks provide nation states with both wartime and intelligence collection options conducted on, in, or through cyberspace . The main basic difference between programmer subculture and computer security hacker is their mostly separate historical origin and development. However, the Jargon File reports that considerable overlap existed for the early phreaking at

1989-433: The more recent and nuanced alternate terms when describing criminals and others who negatively take advantage of security flaws in software and hardware. Others prefer to follow common popular usage, arguing that the positive form is confusing and unlikely to become widespread in the general public. A minority still use the term in both senses despite the controversy, leaving context to clarify (or leave ambiguous) which meaning

2040-406: The opening of its movie The Interview after its computers had been hacked . Bureau 121 has been blamed for the cyber breach, but North Korea has rejected this accusation. Much of the agency's activity has been directed at South Korea . Prior to the attack at Sony, North Korea was said to have attacked more than 30,000 PCs in South Korea affecting banks and broadcasting companies as well as

2091-401: The primary meaning is a complimentary description for a particularly brilliant programmer or technical expert. A large segment of the technical community insist the latter is the correct usage, as in the Jargon File definition. Sometimes, "hacker" is simply used synonymously with " geek ": "A true hacker is not a group person. He's a person who loves to stay up all night, he and the machine in

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2142-425: The programmer subculture of hackers were working at academic institutions and used the computing environment there. In contrast, the prototypical computer security hacker had access exclusively to a home computer and a modem. However, since the mid-1990s, with home computers that could run Unix-like operating systems and with inexpensive internet home access being available for the first time, many people from outside of

2193-452: The programmer subculture usually work openly and use their real name, while computer security hackers prefer secretive groups and identity-concealing aliases. Also, their activities in practice are largely distinct. The former focus on creating new and improving existing infrastructure (especially the software environment they work with), while the latter primarily and strongly emphasize the general act of circumvention of security measures, with

2244-449: The self-designation of hobbyists as hackers is generally acknowledged and accepted by computer security hackers, people from the programming subculture consider the computer intrusion related usage incorrect, and emphasize the difference between the two by calling security breakers "crackers" (analogous to a safecracker ). The controversy is usually based on the assertion that the term originally meant someone messing about with something in

2295-467: The telephone network, that is, the phreaker movement that developed into the computer security hacker subculture of today. Civic hackers use their security and/or programming acumens to create solutions, often public and open-sourced , addressing challenges relevant to neighborhoods, cities, states or countries and the infrastructure within them. Municipalities and major government agencies such as NASA have been known to host hackathons or promote

2346-434: The term consistently pertains primarily to criminal activities, despite attempts by the technical community to preserve and distinguish the original meaning. Today, the mainstream media and general public continue to describe computer criminals, with all levels of technical sophistication, as "hackers" and do not generally make use of the word in any of its non-criminal connotations. Members of the media sometimes seem unaware of

2397-406: The term may be traced back to the early 1980s. When the term, previously used only among computer enthusiasts, was introduced to wider society by the mainstream media in 1983, even those in the computer community referred to computer intrusion as hacking, although not as the exclusive definition of the word. In reaction to the increasing media use of the term exclusively with the criminal connotation,

2448-399: The website of South Korean President Park Geun-hye . North Korea has also been thought to have been responsible for infecting thousands of South Korean smartphones in 2013 with a malicious gaming application. The attacks on South Korea were allegedly conducted by a group then called DarkSeoul Gang and estimated by the computer security company Symantec to have only 10 to 50 members with

2499-432: The word "hacker": Mainstream usage of "hacker" mostly refers to computer criminals, due to the mass media usage of the word since the 1990s. This includes what hacker jargon calls script kiddies , less skilled criminals who rely on tools written by others with very little knowledge about the way they work. This usage has become so predominant that the general public is largely unaware that different meanings exist. Though

2550-431: The word holds a negative denotation in many of those industries. A possible middle ground position has been suggested, based on the observation that "hacking" describes a collection of skills and tools which are used by hackers of both descriptions for differing reasons. The analogy is made to locksmithing , specifically picking locks, which is a skill which can be used for good or evil. The primary weakness of this analogy

2601-515: Was headed at one time by Kim Yong-chol as the first head of the RGB. It is the direct successor of the General Staff Department of the Korean People's Army 's Reconnaissance Bureau ( Korean : 정찰국 ) (which was responsible for several North Korean acts of espionage such as the 1996 Gangneung submarine infiltration incident ). In addition, two former offices of the Central Committee of

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