The New York Times(NYT) reported Sunday that North Korea’s army of more than six-thousand hackers is undeniably persistent and improving.
 
In a report titled "The World Once Laughed at North Korean Cyberpower. No More." the NYT cited American and British security officials who have traced North Korean cyberattacks.
 
The Times said that amid all the attention on Pyongyang’s progress in developing nuclear weapons, the North Koreans have also quietly developed a cyberprogram that is stealing hundreds of millions of dollars and proving capable of unleashing global havoc.
 
The report said that unlike its weapons tests, which have led to global sanctions, the North’s cyber strikes have faced almost no push-back or punishment.
 
It said that Western analysts now acknowledge that hacking is an almost perfect weapon for Pyongyang which is isolated and has little to lose.
 
The Times noted that North Korea's primitive infrastructure is far less vulnerable to cyberretaliation, and North Korean hackers operate outside the country and sanctions offer no useful response.
 
Chris Inglis, a former deputy director of the U.S.National Security Agency, is quoted as saying that "cyber is a tailor-made instrument of power" for the North.
 
He said that North Korea arguably has one of the most successful cyberprograms on the planet, not because it’s technically sophisticated but because it has achieved all of the North's aims at a very low cost.

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