North Korea has been issuing threats again. And it seems to have upped their talk game. In the past, threats or a little Dead South Koreans Theater would prompt talks and aid. But no more.
North Korea's military has deteriorated and the South Koreans are determined not to just take another round of North Korean attacks without striking back very hard.
So is this North Korea's attempt to make good on threats without being exposed as too weak to stop a South Korean retaliation?
A cyberattack caused computer networks at major South Korean banks and top TV broadcasters to crash simultaneously Wednesday, paralyzing bank machines across the country and prompting speculation of North Korean involvement.
Screens went blank at 2 p.m. (0500 GMT), the state-run Korea Information Security Agency said, and more than seven hours later some systems were still down.
Cyber-war is new and nobody accepts that gunfire is the accepted response. But cyber-weapons used are cyber-weapons that probably can't be used again as targets adapt their systems to repel the attacks. You'd really want to save a big cyber-attack to coincide with a conventional attack to sow confusion in the ranks of the defenders. A solo attack is just a pointless bombardment, really.
Nothing critical was struck, with the major impact being South Koreans forced to use cash to buy coffee. So perhaps no really important cyber-weapon was used in this attack. I assume we'll learn something about North Korean capabilities by analyzing the attacks, even if the North Koreans held back their best viruses.
But I call this progress. Dead ATM Theater doesn't have the same impact.
