How North Korea, one of the world's poorest countries, got so good at hacking

[Commentary] Can one of the poorest countries in the world, a country that has isolated itself into technological backwardness, where personal computers are banned and the Internet does not officially exist, possibly be that good at hacking? The answer is yes.

These attacks, like so much of North Korea's bluster, and like its acts of physical aggression, are really done out of insecurity and fear. They are deterrents meant to scare away the much stronger US and South Korea from doing anything to harm North Korea. How their offensive hacking program works is by recruiting promising young talent out of school. They study at a special school in Pyongyang (North Korea) for five years and are then sent to train in China or Russia, both of which run sophisticated state run cyberwar divisions. Like so much of North Korea's behavior, its cyberwarfare program is another sign that, despite its popular portrayal (including in The Interview) as a wingnut state run by delusional madmen, the country is coldly rational and brutally strategic in its actions.