North Korean state security officials recently examined email usage, intranet access and file viewing records at government agencies and schools in North Pyongan province.
“The Ministry of State Security submitted a report to the Central Committee about a review from mid-July through August 1 of intranet usage by organizations in North Pyongan province. As part of this urgent review of randomly selected organizations, inspectors scrutinized records of all related activities, including intranet access, file viewing and email transmission,” a source in the province told Daily NK recently.
North Korea’s state intranet is only accessible at certain organizations, including government agencies, universities and research institutes at central and regional levels. The intranet is used to transmit orders, documents and reports.
According to the source, authorities launched the intranet usage review because of an incident involving a forty-something male trading official in North Pyongan province (identified as “A”) who was caught in early June with a memory card containing government documents hidden in his luggage. “A” had been planning to deliver the memory card to his Chinese trading partners.
The memory card contained policy instructions for the first half of the year for each department of the provincial people’s committee, recent cabinet instructions for each department, and educational materials for the second half of the year.
The Ministry of State Security concluded that “A” had downloaded these documents from the government’s intranet, which prompted reviews not only of intranet access and usage but also of the province’s electronic file management security.
Widespread violations discovered
“In this two-week review, the ministry found dozens of cases of repeated copying, use of unauthorized storage devices, and viewing of documents by unauthorized departments and individuals. The report also detailed vulnerabilities in the management system that allowed the trading official in question to access other departments’ intranets and view and copy their files,” the source said.
The ministry finished its review of government intranet usage by major organizations in North Pyongan province on Aug. 1 and submitted its report to the Central Committee the following day.
The report details violations of intranet usage regulations and lists offending organizations and administrators by name.
The Workers’ Party of Korea and law enforcement agencies are expected to take action in response to the various issues outlined in the report. The ministry has already warned that administrators of organizations that violated file viewing regulations will face administrative and legal consequences, as well as party discipline, for their negligent data management.
Following the intranet usage review, members of government agencies and educational institutions in North Pyongan province are trying to access the intranet less frequently and deliver more reports by hand. While this approach is less convenient and efficient, officials plan to conduct business this way for now given the need to strengthen data security.
The review effectively served as a reminder of data security’s importance.
“This is definitely less convenient than the intranet, which lets you read a document and send instructions in just minutes. But people at organizations affected by the review say this is necessary to improve security. Going forward, the government will tighten control of intranet usage to prevent data discipline from becoming lax,” the source said.
These developments have sparked anger at trading officials not only among government agency and educational institution staff in North Pyongan province, but also among the general public.
“Traders have made it harder to use our convenient intranet. People are anxious and scared about viewing any documents at all,” the source said, adding that these events have worsened suspicions that trading officials are engaged in espionage.
