---
title: The Country with No Internet, yet Thousands of Hackers
description: How does North Korea create a massive hacking network with virtually no internet? Prodigies and perks.
---

[SecureWorld News ](https://www.secureworld.io/industry-news)

# [The Country with No Internet, yet Thousands of Hackers](https://www.secureworld.io/industry-news/north-korean-hacker-army)

 Written by [SecureWorld News Team](https://www.secureworld.io/industry-news/author/secureworld-news-team) | Mon | Oct 16, 2017 | 2:08 PM Z

It seems incomprehensible to anyone in a developed nation: North Korea may only have a few dozen websites its citizens can access. 

That's right, a few dozen.

And look at the World Bank's estimate for North Korean internet usage. A total goose egg a few years ago that reportedly has jumped to 0.1% as of 2017.

**North Korea a growing cyber threat**

Despite this, we've known for a long time that the North Korean government is growing in its abilities as a nation-state cyber threat, and that it has become the [number three threat to the United States](https://www.secureworld.io/industry-news/video-top-3-cyber-threats-to-u.s.-ranked) according to experts SecureWorld has interviewed.

And it's likely [North Korean hackers recently stole](https://www.secureworld.io/industry-news/north-korea-hacks-war-plans) South Korean and U.S. war plans the two nations had agreed on. And North Korea was recently caught [targeting the U.S. power grid](https://www.secureworld.io/industry-news/video-north-korea-targeting-u.s.-electric-grid) for a cyber attack.

### **How North Korea has thousands of hackers**

So how does a country like North Korea build such a powerful hacking network? A *New York Times* article sheds some serious light on this. It says North Korea's hacker network numbers more than 6,000 of the best and brightest minds in the country.

[The article](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/15/world/asia/north-korea-hacking-cyber-sony.html) explains that North Korea takes computer prodigies and molds them into hackers. And it offers many of them a rare opportunity: the chance to live outside the country while hacking for the nation-state. In fact, the Times reports that a large percentage of the North Korean attacks come from traffic originating in India.

### **Is Russia helping North Korea with internet access?**

In a country where sanctions create a lot of technological barriers, even bandwidth is tough to come by.

Is it possible Russia may now be helping North Korea with this problem? Dyn researchers say they've detected a new [path of web traffic between North Korea and Russia](https://dyn.com/blog/north-korea-gets-new-internet-link-via-russia/) that suggests this is the case.

There is still more to come on North Korea's growing cyber attack capabilities. But we know this much for certain: the nation's leaders see cyber as a key tool for victory in its fight against the outside world.

[View full post](https://www.secureworld.io/industry-news/north-korean-hacker-army)

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