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Left-of-Launch Attacks May be Bringing Down North Korean Missles

posted by n1 on Friday April 07 2017, @12:25AM   
from the listen-all-of-y'all-it's-a-sabotage dept.

DBCubix writes:

Experts are suggesting the in-flight failure and crash of the missile launched by North Korea on Wednesday could have been the result of a "left-of-launch" attack by the United States. While these failures may have been the result of poor engineering on the part of the North Koreans, they may also have been deliberately brought down by the US.

[...] In 2014, then-President Barack Obama authorized additional research into "left-of-launch" efforts to neutralize North Korean missiles, as opposed to the more traditional deployment of anti-missile systems to destroy inbound weapons. "Left-of-launch" strategies involve electromagnetic propagation or cyber attacks against missiles immediately after launch, including through infected electronics aboard the weapon that confuse its command and control or targeting systems.

[...] Part of the beauty of a "left-of-launch" attack, said Lance Gatling, a defence analyst and president of Tokyo-based Nexial Research Inc, is that the North Koreans cannot be sure that any imported electronics have not been deliberately permitted to evade sanctions because they are infected with malware. Similarly, when a launch fails they are also unable to determine what brought the missile down.

Previously: North Korean Missiles and What the US is Doing About It

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Original Submission

• Not Beautiful (Score: 3, Insightful) by meustrus on Friday April 07 2017, @03:28PM

  by meustrus (4961) on Friday April 07 2017, @03:28PM (#490284)

  Part of the beauty of a "left-of-launch" attack, said Lance Gatling, a defence analyst and president of Tokyo-based Nexial Research Inc, is that the North Koreans cannot be sure that any imported electronics have not been deliberately permitted to evade sanctions because they are infected with malware.

  That's not "beautiful". If North Korea can't trust its imports, it will make the components itself. Don't think they can't. And when they build that capability, they will still have missiles, but be yet another step further from the global economy.

  If your goal is to make North Korea a peaceful participant in international politics, rather than an unhinged recluse, this is the exact opposite of what you should do. They must be made dependent on trustworthy imports from their enemies. Only then will it become more costly to threaten those that stand against them than it is to seek peace.

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  If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?

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