Hacker who 'brought down North Korea’s internet for over a week' speaks out
Topics: North Korea, Reddit
Callum Jones
Featured Image Credit: @_hyp3ri0n/X/ Contributor/Getty Images
Topics: North Korea, Reddit
A hacker who remarkably 'brought down North Korea's internet for over a week' has given the internet a chance to 'ask him anything' about it.
Just over two years ago, the hacker, who goes by the name of P4x, went famous with his first venture into the world of hacking - by taking down North Korea's internet network.
You know, as you do.
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While hackers may usually work with a team of people, he instead worked alone in his coastal Florida home in January 2022.
In April, P4x’s real identity was revealed by Wired to be Alejandro Caceres, a 38-year-old Colombian-American cybersecurity entrepreneur.
According to the publication, Caceres had been personally targeted by North Korean spies who'd aimed to steal his intrusion tools in the past, so he wanted some revenge.
So, under the pseudonym of P4x, he targeted every available public website in North Korea and kept them offline for more than a week.
"It felt like the right thing to do here," he told WIRED at the time. "If they don’t see we have teeth, it’s just going to keep coming."
And now, two months after this impressive feat, Caceres has spoken out in a lengthy Reddit thread - and offered for anyone to ask him a question about it.
"Recently I was on NPR’s The World and a bunch of other sh**." he penned on the social media platform.
"Anyway, AMA about the hack, personal stuff, whatever! Happy to answer. I have not yet been murdered or arrested, so that’s pretty good."
Of course, the first question is whether it was 'hard' to take down North Korea's network.
To which he replied: "Honestly I’ve been asked this a lot. And I can’t really tell haha. I used to say nah it wasn’t that hard.
"But then I told people how I did it and they were like 'well ok, it wasn’t hard but only because you’re trained in this….'"
While another Reddit user asked the hacker what he feels are the most likely consequences as a result of his actions.
However, he says he hasn't faced any negative repercussions - as of yet.
"Everyone seems to sort of like it but cannot say that officially. Honestly, I expected a LOT more negativity just because that’s the natural order of things." he said, adding that the only 'consequences' he'd faced was 'intelligence agencies' asking him how he did it.
And finally, a third person asked: "Do they show up at your door in trench coats like in the movies?
"Or do you just get an email and a Team meeting invite?"
"We actually did it in a basement a couple of times lol. It was super X-Files type s**t but also like any normal meeting. Weird dissonance…" Caceres answered.
Weird indeed.