COMMENTARY:
Reports of North Korea launching cyber attacks on South Korea continue. At the same time North Korea is said to be behind a recent group of cyber attacks on the United States as well.

Some experts familiar with these attacks say they are tests of North Korea’s newly developed cyber weapons, but with most cyber attacks knowing who is behind the attack (attribution) and possibly why they chose to attack continue to be illusive questions.

Consider this. We know that Iran and North Korea have a friendly relationship and have traded technology in the past.

Recently, Iran openly threatened the United States. Mahmoud Ahmadi Bighash, a member of the Majlis Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy claimed they had “very strong” cyber defense capabilities and went on to say “In the cyber war, we (Iran) will definitely be the winner.”

Now North Korea is pressing South Korea, a U.S. ally, in the cyber conflict domain. Could these two be planning a joint cyber attack on the United States or drawing the U.S. into a cyber conflict by launching significant cyber attacks on South Korea?

That is a distinct possibility! North Korea has proven to have an itchy trigger finger when it comes to cyber attacks. As Iran grows their own cyber warfare capabilities, will their interaction with North Korea push them to inherit this trait from their North Korean ally?

Will Iran mimic the North Korean approach to cyber warfare or perhaps develop their own?

One thing is for certain, this is further evidence that the cyber arms race on.

Kevin G. Coleman is a long-time security technology executive and former Chief Strategist at Netscape. He is Senior Fellow with the Technolytics Institute, where he provides consulting services on strategic technology and security issues.