[News Today] APP OUTSOURCED TO NK DEVELOPER

[LEAD]
North Korea, blocked by UN sanctions, is now exploiting the cyber world to earn foreign currency. Beyond known tactics like cryptocurrency theft and hacking, KBS has confirmed that domestic smartphone applications are being developed.

[REPORT]
Early this year, a North Korean IT group was found to have sold thousands of illegal gambling websites to crime organizations.

Around this time, on the dark web where hackers illegally trade information, data from an IT developer's personal computer was uploaded.

The data contains multiple indications showing that the developer is presumed to be North Korean.

This is a letter believed to have been from the developer's family.

It is full of expressions used only in North Korea.

Kim Young-hee/ Korea Hana Foundation
Expressions and word spacing used in the letter show that it was written in N. Korea.

In the data, KBS also found signs suggesting that this developer had produced applications for South Korean usage.

There were passwords and IDs that only the developer would know.

This developer is suspected of having produced around 10 apps for various industries from medical service to education and beauty.

It is assumed that the North Korean developer was a subcontractor of South Korean companies that had won orders for app development.

Official at company placing order for app development / (VOICE MODIFIED)
The discovered information is ours. There are outsourcing web sites. We hire contractors there.

We visited an app development company only to find no sign of a business and that it was out of contact.

But the problem is that apps developed by North Korean developers can be used as hacking tools for North Korea.

Choi Sang-myoung/ IT security firm
Malicious codes can be planted in the apps or they can be downloaded during an update, enabling cyber attacks.

In the data, there is a phrase about the poor performance of the developer's group.

According to the National Intelligence Service in Seoul, there are thousands of North Korean IT workers operating worldwide.

This is why South Korean companies need to exercise precaution when outsourcing app development.