If North Korea was to create its own "Facebook," shouldn't securing the site from hackers be one of its top priorities? Recent news begs to differ.
When it comes to countries notorious for censoring online content and gleaning information from citizens, North Korea is one of the first names to come to mind. If a country like North Korea was to create its own social network, wouldn’t you think that securing the site would be one of its top priorities? Recent news begs to differ.
North Korea recently launched a social networking site that bears an uncanny resemblance to the Facebook we know and love. The site, which was hosted in North Korea itself, could originally be found at www.starcon.net.kp/.
A screenshot of North Korea's own social network. (Image via Dyn Research)
This fake Facebook's run was short and sweet, as it was hacked just hours after its launch. The root of the problem was that the creator of the site forgot to reset the default username and password. 18-year-old Andrew McKean from Scotland was the person who successfully (and almost effortlessly) became an admin of the site by entering the combination of “admin” and “password” as the login credentials. Admin access gave him widespread control of the network and even gave him sufficient permission to access the backend of the site.
In creating this site, the intentions of North Korean authorities remains unclear. It seems especially strange because at this point, the country‘s authorities couldn‘t be doing much more to mess with its citizens‘ rights.
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