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Tuesday, December 23, 2014

North Korea Internet hit by 2 more outages - USA TODAY

Doug Stanglin and Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY 1:17 p.m. EST December 23, 2014




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North Korea's Internet service, which was out for almost 10 hours on Monday, went down two more times on Tuesday, including a 31-minute stretch, according to Dyn Research.


The Manchester, N.H., company that tracks internet traffic and performance said "connectivity problems continue."


The initial instability emerged Sunday followed by the full shutdown for nine and and a half hours on Monday. The two outages onTuesday included one that lasted from10:41 a.m. ET to 11:12 a.m.ET.


SHOW TIME: Some theaters to screen 'The Interview' on Christmas


The disruption inside the hermit kingdom comes as tensions grow with the United States over North Korea's alleged computer hack attack on Sony Pictures, and the studio's unreleased movie, The Interview, about a fictional attempt to kill the leader of the Pyongyang regime, Kim Jong Un.


After initially removing the film from distribution, Sony now plans to screen it in some theaters beginning Christmas Day.


Kyle York, of Dyn Research, tells USA TODAY that said he expects to see more outages from the North Korean system in the coming days.


"If they are having this prolonged a blackout, then something is up, something is broken and not allowing a quick fix," York said.


He noted North Korea has a "very basic Internet" with few redundancies, only one server inside the country and one connection through China.


Given such a highly vulnerable system, York said, the possible cause of the outages ranges from malicious activity to a "fat finger" inside the country to weather dynamics. He said it could even be as basic as "some kid in his parents' basement" jamming up the system.


After the initial disruptions, U.S. officials on Monday declined to say if the United States was responsible for the outage.


On Friday, President Obama said he would "respond proportionately" to the cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment, which the FBI confirmed was launched by North Korea.


On Sunday, however, Obama said the hacking was not an act of war. Speaking on CNN's State of the Union, Obama said, "I think it was an act of cyber vandalism that was very costly, very expensive. We take it very seriously. We will respond proportionately."


The North's official Korean Central News Agency and the Rodong Sinmun newspaper, all of which have servers abroad, are the main channels for official news from the North Korean government.


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