Meanwhile, Somebody Is Mining Bitcoin In North Korea. I Wonder Who...
According to an article posted on Recorded Future somebody in North Korea is starting to mine Bitcon. Like seriously starting to mine Bitcoin.
Before that day, there had been virtually no activity to Bitcoin-related sites or nodes, or utilizing Bitcoin-specific ports or protocols. Beginning on May 17, that activity increased exponentially, from nothing to hundreds per day.
From this point on, the article makes a few assumptions about why this happening, and one of them is leading to connections of North Korea with the recent WannaCry ransomware hack.
The timing of this mining is important because it began very soon after the May WannaCry ransomware attacks, which the NSA has attributed to North Korea’s intelligence service, the Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB), as an attempt to raise funds for the Kim regime.
By this point (May 17) actors within the government would have realized that moving the bitcoin from the three WannaCry ransom accounts would be easy to track and ill-advised if they wished to retain deniability for the attack.
I have little knowledge about North Korea government so I can't say if this correct or incorrect. But I do know that computers are scarce in Korea and access to Internet infrastructure even scarcer. So it's probably the government.
And, once again, I blink a few times, puzzled, look around, and realize what a Sci-Fi time we actually live in. Somebody is hacking digital resources, ask for ransom and then - allegedly - starts a covert operation by printing digital money, in order to wipe the trails.
Other than that, I highly recommend reading that article, because it may shed some light on the ridicule-riddled, but highly dynamic North Korean communist regime.. At least their elites seem to know what's going on around the world.
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crazy, so many contradictions arguably the most backward country in the world doing this...
Kind of reminds me of the old Soviet regime; very backwards on the surface, but somehow having all the tech to compete with the big boys when it actually mattered.
Same in communist Romania, 25 years ago.
I feel for the citizens of North Korea,how do you live without the internet in this day and age. Lets hope one day they will have a regime change. That's the weird Government that has noticed the power in cryptos and now they are mining.
Call me intrigued. I will read the whole article to see what's what. But this theory doesn't seem far fetched.
To be honest, if they use all their resources and put it into bitcoin mining they could probably post their national GDP a lot.
It seems like a pretty good idea for North Korea to generate money but it is all going to go towards the wrong thing as usual.
You know how it is. The government is definitely up to speed on the world. And some people will find a way. I remember my parents telling me how they listened to Free Europe Radio when radios were banned in Romania; or buying smuggled movies; or that somehow everybody was trading in the illegal and highly sough after Kent cigarette (which is now shite). Such is the world :)
So it could be random people trying to make a living, but somehow I doubt that rando from NK would be able to operate a high level mine without being noticed, so it's probably the government, and maybe some people looking for scraps.
Yes I heard that citizens in North Korea are not allowed cars, driver licences, can't call international ID's no internet or computers and only the government have access to these ... so probably it's got to be the Government :) It must be awful to live there!!
That does rise some eyebrows!!
Perhaps they'd never heard of it prior to the 'attacks'? :D
I highly doubt that...
Who knows what's happening in North Korea, the people of North Korea certainly don't!
My guess is Dennis Rodman.
No man, Dennis Rodman is shilling for PotCoin not BTC. :)
http://www.businessinsider.com/weed-cryptocurrency-potcoin-dennis-rodman-north-korea-2017-6