How DPRK is able to monitor smart phones
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Interesting paper on how the government of North Korea tries to keep its citizens from getting any information from the outside world.
Analysis of the app reveals subscribers are required to use a username, password, SIM Card and be using an approved device to gain access to the network. The use of a SIM Card is unusual, but the engineers chose an international standard for the authentication. The Wi-Fi network settings are hard coded into the app and cannot be changed by the user. The Wi-Fi portion of the settings app has been disabled removing the ability to search for other networks.
As a result, the tablet can be used to connect to the Mirae network but no others. This allows North Korean authorities the ability to provide wifi-based intranet connectivity while preserving a level of network access control consistent with mobile provider-based intranet data access.and
In the Android realm, files are required to be digitally signed by one of two signatures to be accepted as valid and to be executed or viewed on a device.
The SELFSIGN signature is generated by the smartphone itself and appended to media files such as photographs taken with the device. The second signature, NATISIGN, is generated by the government and used on all official content and apps.
When a file is transferred to a North Korean smartphone, the phone immediately checks that it is one of a number of accepted file types and, if so, for a valid signature. If the file fails these checks it will be deleted.and
The ubiquitous Trace Viewer (열람리력) app is a standard feature of every North Korean smart phone and is an ever-present reminder that big brother is watching when the phone is in use.
The software randomly snaps photographs while the phone is switched on and stores them in a directory where they cannot be erased.I was reading also where recently the government is requiring a new version of Android that does not allow the ability to send photos and videos via text message and added additional security features.
So, North Korean smartphones:
- cannot make or receive international phone calls or text messages
- cannot access the Internet
- unapproved apps and media cannot be loaded or played on devices
- Phones also can only connect to two state-sanctioned cellular networks and a state-run Wi-Fi network.
But supposedly, there are at least 7 MM in use in DPRK.
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@Klaus said in How DPRK is able to monitor smart phones:
Elon Musk should drop a few devices to connect to Starlink in NK.
This has been talked about in a separate report I saw. Space X is going to provide direct satellite to smartphone capability this year.
But........
users will need a smartphone with a SIM card from a partner carrier. For North Korea, the security measures on North Korean phones mean foreign SIM cards and apps will not work on them, so a compatible phone would still have to be smuggled into the country.
and also
Regulations of the 4G and 5G cellular signals used by the satellites are handled on a country-by-country basis, so AST Space Mobile and SpaceX need to work with national partners to gain permission to provide service.
This can be seen with the current plan for Starlink Internet service in South Korea and other nations. Coverage is usually only switched on for cells that are completely inside a national border, leaving border areas, where cells straddle two countries, unserved.
And realistically, there is no way that the two mobile services in DPRK would ever agree to sign up. So, maybe in border areas, something would be possible, that is already ongoing near China with DPRK people use Chinese cell networks.
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In a sense, NK is the worst dictatorship that ever existed. I don't think it has ever been the case in the history of mankind that millions of people were so completely kept in the dark about everything that is going on. Hopefully there is a very bad place in hell for the dictator and his friends.
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I was in this bar (Taedonggang Bar) shown below in Pyongyang the first time I saw a DPRK person with a smart phone. Like most people around the world, he was using it to play a game. 555
