North Korean Internet Collapses

North Korea’s link to the Internet collapsed today, after first becoming unstable late Friday. The Internet monitors said the country’s networks are under duress, consistent with a distributed denial of service or DDoS attack on their routers, the New York Times reported.

The collapse of North Korean Internet came just days after President Obama pledged a proportional response to the recent attacks on Sony Pictures, which the U.S. has linked to North Korea. Although it was unclear if the U.S. was behind this DDoS attack against North Korea.

The loss of service will affect the country’s elites, state-run media channels and propaganda machine, as well as its cadre of cyberwarriors. Ordinary people have no access to the Internet.

A DDos attack is a form of cybervandalism, a term President Obama used to describe North Korea’s action against Sony. It is temporary, it probably would take hours not days, it imposes some cost, and in the case of North Korea it's limited to the country’s elite users.

File photo: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visiting his country’s Army Designing Institute in an undated photo released by North Korea (ABC News)