Hacker who took down North Korea's internet for a week appeared on an online bulletin board with his face photo and shared 'How to attack North Korea'

Hacker Alejandro Caceres (handle name: P4x) , who has a history of taking down North Korea's internet for a week, appeared on the online bulletin board 'Reddit' with a photo of his face for identification and answered questions from users in an 'AMA'. At the time of writing, P4x's post had received over 26,000 likes and over 3,500 comments, and interesting information such as 'attack methods' and 'cost of attack' was made public.

P4x is a white hat hacker living in the United States who launched a cyber attack on North Korea in retaliation for an attack on him from North Korea in 2022, rendering most of the websites publicly available in North Korea inaccessible for a week. After carrying out the attack, P4x identified himself as the attacker, and in April 2024, he gave his real name and a photo of himself in an interview with WIRED .

Hacker 'P4x' claims to be the one who shut down North Korea's internet, motivated by dissatisfaction with the US government's response to North Korea's attacks - GIGAZINE

On Wednesday, June 19, 2024, P4x posted on Reddit, 'I'm the hacker who took down North Korea's internet for a week. Any questions?' and invited questions from Reddit users. P4x attached a photo of himself, including his face, handle name, date, and Reddit username ( dotslashpunk ), to prove that he is the real P4x.

At the time of writing, P4x's post had received over 26,000 likes and over 3,500 comments, and he answered many of the questions. Here are some of the most interesting ones:

◆Was there any impact on North Korean civilians?
North Korea has a highly restricted internet connection, with only a select few websites accessible to the elite. Because of this, P4x explains, 'North Korean civilians would likely not even know they were being attacked.'

How did they attack North Korea?
P4x's analysis of North Korea's Internet infrastructure revealed that all North Korea's Internet traffic passes through 'two specific routers.' When P4x contracted a rental server and sent a large amount of traffic to the 'two specific routers,' most websites became inaccessible.

◆How much did the attack on North Korea cost?
The cost of the rental server that P4x contracted for the attack on North Korea was $5,000 (about 790,000 yen). P4x commented, 'I think I could have cut it in half.'

Airports in Southeast Asia should be avoided
In 2017, Kim Jong-un's half-brother, Kim Jong-nam, was killed at an airport in Malaysia . In response to this, Reddit users commented that it would be better to avoid airports in Southeast Asia, to which P4x replied, 'I don't have any reason to go to Malaysia in the near future, but I'll do it.'

In addition, there are many other comments on the original thread, so if you are interested, please check it out.