Slashdot Mirror
Reddit Brings Down North Korea's Entire Internet (mirror.co.uk)
After a North Korean system administrator misconfigured its nameserver allowing anyone to query it and get the list of the domains that exist for .kp, it was revealed that the secretive country only has 28 websites. That's 28 websites for a country with nearly 25 million people. Naturally, the story was published all across the web, including on Reddit, which resulted in a high number of users visiting North Korea's websites. Mirror.co.uk reports: When a list of North Korea's available websites was posted on Reddit, the surge of visitors to the reclusive state's online offering overloaded the servers. North Korea runs a completely locked-down version of the internet that consists of only 28 "websites" that the population is allowed to view. However, a technical slip-up allowed a GitHub user to work their way into the country's computer network and view the websites from the outside. As the GitHub user puts it: "One of North Korea's top level name servers was accidentally configured to allow global [Domain Name System] transfers. This allows anyone who performs [a zone transfer request] to the country's ns2.kptc.kp name server to get a copy of the nation's top level DNS data." Pretty soon, links to all the websites were posted on Reddit, where thousands of visitors took the opportunity to see what the web looks like from Pyongyang. Reddit's surge of traffic isn't the first time North Korea's internet has been knocked out. In 2014, the country suffered a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack that was believed to have originated from the U.S. Redditor BaconBakin points out that while North Korea has 28 websites, GTA V has 83 websites. They added, "I think it's safe to say that San Andreas is more technologically advanced than North Korea."
someone probably died for this mistake
Are you kidding? I'll bet nobody can figure out who to blame... I can imagine the wild shuffling with the CYA memos flying about in a sea of paper that has sheet after sheet that says "It's not my fault, shoot Kim so and so...."
It's bad enough here in the capitalist side when it's just money and jobs at stake. Can you image how this goes when the guy who finally get's fingered has to face the Anti-Aircraft guns at short range and take his relatives along for the event?
You can bet though, that if lit'l Kim thinks he lost face, *somebody*, *anybody* and perhaps even everybody involved will face the music..
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
someone probably died for this mistake
Are you kidding? I'll bet nobody can figure out who to blame...
I don't think that really matters in NK.
You can't blame Redditors for being responsible for a despotic regime's policies of executing anyone who upsets or embarrasses the leadership. The blame lies squarely at the top. It always has, and this is precisely why it is a basic human right to live in a free and just society.
But while we're at it, I dare say that the blame for North Korea's situation also lies with its people. I know that the people are brainwashed, poor, coerced. The Western media likes to characterize the DPRK as a tyrannical government enslaving its hapless citizens, because doing so conveniently focuses the blame on the regime. But that same regime does not operate in a vacuum, as isolated as it is from the rest of the world. The reality is that a large segment of North Korean society actually believes the propaganda that is fed to them, much like how many Americans believe the propaganda they are exposed to. Being shown stark evidence that their worldview is wrong, such people actually redouble their fervor in supporting the narrative they have been led to believe. This phenomenon, carefully exploited, is the seed of fascism.
Being a tech site, I'm curious: When did a registered domain become referred to as a single website. Having looked at the articles, I see plenty of reference to 28 domains, but no mention of how many sub-domains each has, nor how many sites (blogs/static page/wiki/whatever) are hosted on each domain, and so I was wondering why it is being categorically stated here that there are only 28 websites. My understanding has always been that there can be multiple websites on a single domain, but Slashdot seems to be equating 1 domain=1 website here (and on looking at the links, even some inaccessible domains are being categorised as websites, when it is equally possible they are registered purely for email and have no webpages attached).
"much like how many Americans believe the propaganda they are exposed to"
Americans have unfettered access to numerous sources of information each spouting their own version of the facts and biases. In your arrogance you some how believe you are the only one who understands the truth. And stop with the generalizations of "Americans". "Americans" are suppose to be fat and lazy but some how end up dominating the world in international sporting events such as the Olympics. "Americans" are supposed to be knuckle dragging idiots but some how lead the world in technological advances and it's Universities and Colleges admit students from all over the world. "Americans" are suppose to be nothing but a bunch of racists and xenophobes but people are lined up in front of American foreign embassies trying to get visas and start the paperwork for immigrating to the US. Others don't bother with the formalities and just enter illegally, How many people are standing in line to immigrate to China, Russia, NK, Mexico, and similar hell holes throughout the world. The US has the most diverse population on the planet. All nationalities, ethnic groups, and races. People bitch and moan about US military bases around the world and then go into a blind panic every time the US even mentions downsizing and closing bases.
Actually, it is more likely a combination of both, but not in the way you think. I can think of a number of effects at play
Firstly, we know that Nazi's used Jews as guards and administrators in the death camps. Why'd they do it? Fear of individual persecution, and a desire to achieve a better circumstance. In situations like this it makes sense to sell out your neighbour for personal gain. I guess you'd call it a combination of greed and fear.
Secondly, there is the fact that they live in a controlling regime that makes dissent very difficult. Specifically you should google the Hawthorne effect. Basically, if there is a chance you're under surveillance then you alter your behaviour accordingly. They government tries to either achieve of implement panopticism (google it).
Thirdly, North Korea constitutes what social psychologists and political scientists call 'total instutionalism'. They've been cut off so well (28 websites remember) and so long that they are not only disconnected from the outside world, it doesn't exist to them. I mean, they know it is there, but they know nothing about it. They may never have heard the world revolution.
Fourthly, social facilitation in a police state is completely different than in a liberal democracy. You never know who is going to dob you in.
Finally, there are probably some people who just plain believe the lies. They've grown up with the indoctrination and just buy in.
I think it is a discredit to ourselves to try and say this is just a lazy population or an overbearing dictator. There are a number of complex social psychological phenomenons happening, as well as a totalitarian power structure. The problem is hard to understand. The solution is easy though - great leader will be the first guy with his back against the wall when the revolution comes.
You seem to have magnified the import of my original statement in your mind.
In relative terms, Americans are indeed far more diverse in their viewpoints and backgrounds than virtually all other nationalities on the planet. And yes, in with respect to access to information, Americans do have the ability to investigate on their own and are, again, relatively much more free to express their own ideas and positions.
However, many (which is the exact word I used in my previous post) Americans are horribly susceptible to propaganda. It is also true that there are many Americans who are smart enough to detect such sophistry. Of course, the United States is not unique in this; any nation's citizens are vulnerable to the machinations of those in power. This has been demonstrated throughout American history and more broadly, world history; but it is all the more evident in the current geopolitical climate. Free access to information and freedom of expression are only parts of the story; these are not in themselves sufficient to inoculate society against the persistent threat of tyranny, as the Founding Fathers had recognized. What they perhaps did not anticipate was the slow encroachment of ignorance upon the public; the systemic failure to educate people, to teach them how to think and reason for themselves. (The familiar saying, "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink" applies here.)
Consequently, political partisanship in the US has recently led to explicit jingoistic, xenophobic, and racist violence. This is only possible for the reasons I already explained. And the notion of American exceptionalism is merely one manifestation--albeit a rather stark one--of the more fundamental inability to accept facts that contradict an existing worldview when the emotional and cultural investment into that worldview has been considerable and lifelong.
To circle back to North Korea, then, we can see through the lens of history that despotic regimes do not simply appear de novo in a society. They come to power through the exploitation and manipulation of fear, and the slow but steadily increasing intellectual disenfranchisement of each passing generation. We saw this in China during the Cultural Revolution; Russia in the rise of the Soviet Union and more recently, the collusion of the oligarchs to permanently place Putin in power; and Germany post World-War I. The United States, if it is not careful, is just as susceptible, despite the protections afforded by the Constitution, so long as some Americans wallow in their own self-delusions of greatness and superiority. In the course of human civilization, 240 years is but a blink of an eye.