# So, apparently the Internet is out for North Korea **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 23, 2014, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-the-internet-is-out-for-north-korea/707974 "2014-12-23T00:34:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-the-internet-is-out-for-north-korea/707974/21 "2014-12-23T13:47:33Z")
> [@phall0106](#): > > Ah, someone probably just unplugged the modem. Probably to upgrade to 1200 baud. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-the-internet-is-out-for-north-korea/707974/22 "2014-12-23T13:48:20Z")
For a minute there I amused myself by the thought that during the hacked outage, the only content NK’s would be able to see on the internet was a looped streaming of _The Interview_. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-the-internet-is-out-for-north-korea/707974/23 "2014-12-23T14:21:15Z")
> [@phall0106](#): > > Ah, someone probably just unplugged the modem. I really hope it was just some kind of technical problem. Someone on the news pointed out that the US starting a tit-for-tat cyberwar with North Korea is a really, really bad idea. They can do a lot more damage to us with cyber attacks, by many orders of magnitude, than we could ever hope to do to them. We can mildly inconveniance the North Korean government. OTOH, the North Koreans could, for example, hack major corporations and wipe out all of their payroll data. Or maybe see what kind of grief they could cause with the (computer controlled) US electrical infrastucture. ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-the-internet-is-out-for-north-korea/707974/24 "2014-12-23T14:27:22Z")
Doesn’t NK basically swipe their tech from China? If it was anybody outside of NK, it was probably China…? I thought Sony was being blamed for being careless with their security. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-the-internet-is-out-for-north-korea/707974/25 "2014-12-23T15:09:02Z")
Must be a new guy on the cleaning crew, unplugged the router so he could run the floor buffer. Happens all the time. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-the-internet-is-out-for-north-korea/707974/26 "2014-12-23T15:18:48Z")
China changed their wifi password. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-the-internet-is-out-for-north-korea/707974/27 "2014-12-23T16:16:19Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Since Internet access is supposedly forbidden for ordinary North Koreans, all an outage means is that Dear Tubby Leader can’t visit his favorite porn sites. He must be quite ronery. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-the-internet-is-out-for-north-korea/707974/28 "2014-12-24T04:59:39Z")
> [@phall0106](#): > > Ah, someone probably just unplugged the modem. Or someone forgot to feed the [carrier pigeons](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_over_Avian_Carriers). 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2014, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-the-internet-is-out-for-north-korea/707974/29 "2014-12-25T03:50:59Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > I really hope it was just some kind of technical problem. Someone on the news pointed out that the US starting a tit-for-tat cyberwar with North Korea is a really, really bad idea. They can do a lot more damage to us with cyber attacks, by many orders of magnitude, than we could ever hope to do to them. How can they cyberattack us if we keep their Internet turned off? ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2014, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-the-internet-is-out-for-north-korea/707974/30 "2014-12-25T03:55:21Z")
People seem to forget that the original internet was a DARPA (Dept. of Defense (nee War Dept.) research) project. We may have let others play, but I have to suspect the US kept a skeleton key, just in case. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-the-internet-is-out-for-north-korea/707974.md?page=1)