North Korea’s U.S. cyber-attack

What we should do about the big attack—allegedly by Pyongyang—on U.S. and South Korean websites

“Thousands of zombified computers” attacked at least 26 websites in the U.S. and South Korea, said Brian Fung in Foreign Policy, and South Korean intelligence is fingering North Korea. The cyber-attacks, which began July 4, at least temporarily shut down an impressive list of sites—at the White House, State Department, Secret Service, New York Stock Exchange, and other institutions. Cyberwarfare is no laughing matter.

If North Korea is behind the cyber-attacks, said Joe Klein in Time, maybe the U.S. should retaliate, to “demonstrate to other would-be perpetrators that we have sophisticated capabilities” at hand. Nothing too drastic—like we could “turn the electricity in Pyongyang on and off a few times, if we can do it.”

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us