Bureau 121

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Bureau 121 (Unit 121 of the North Korean General Bureau of Reconnaissance[1]) is the name of a secret cyberwarfare agency belonging to the military of North Korea.[2][3] It is one of two such cyberwarfare units in the General Bureau of Reconnaissance, the other being No. 91 Office.[4]

The activity of the agency came into public limelight in December 2014 when Sony Pictures canceled the opening of its movie The Interview after its computers had been hacked.[5] Bureau 121 has been blamed for the cyber breach.[6][2] North Korea has rejected this accusation.[7]

According to a report by Reuters, Bureau 121, also known as the DarkSeoul Gang[8] is staffed by some of North Korea's most talented computer experts and is run by the Korean military. A defector indicated that the agency has about 1,800 specialists. Many hackers of the bureau are hand-picked graduates of the University of Automation, Pyongyang.[3] While these specialists are scattered around the world, their families benefit from special privileges at home.[9][2]

Much of the agency's activity has been directed at South Korea.[3] Prior to the attack at Sony, the agency was said to have attacked more than 30,000 PCs in South Korea affecting banks and broadcasting companies as well as a website of South Korean President Park Geun-Hye[10][3] It are also has been thought to have been responsible for infecting thousands of South Korean smartphones in 2013 with a malicious gaming app.[7]

According to Jang Se-yul, a North Korean defector, North Korea is very active in cyberwarfare and its capabilities have been underestimated.[11] North Korea has sophisticated cyber warfare capabilities with cells from Bureau 121 operating around the world.[12] One of the suspected locations of a cell is the Chilbosan Hotel in Shenyang, China.[2]