Red Star OS

2015: Spying on users

At the end of December 2015, it became known that the national operating system of North Korea allows you to monitor users. This conclusion was reached by German information security experts (IS) Florian Grunow and Niklaus Shiess.

During a speech at the Chaos Communication congress in Hamburg on December 28, 2015, experts said that the Red Star computer software platform created in North Korea ("Red Star") uses Fedora as a basis, but contains a lot of its own developments, including a file encryption system.

Red Star 3.0 Operating System Interface

Original technologies are used to minimize the country's dependence on Western products that can be compromised and used by foreigners for espionage.

The seeming secrecy of Red Star does not mean complete privacy of users. According to Florian Grunov and Niklaus Schiss, the operating system records all changes to documents and multimedia files on the hard drive and connected removable media, allowing you to install, for example, when and on which computers they have visited, for which it automatically marks them with special "watermarks." Such a mechanism is designed to combat the spread of content contrary to the ideology of the ruling party.

It is also stated that it is quite difficult for users to work with this OS. If they make any changes to the operation of the computer, it displays an error message.

It is worth noting that DPRK citizens do not have Internet access in our understanding - the World Wide Web is replaced by the Kwanmen national computer network, in which you can get acquainted with the successes of the party and its leaders.

According to German information security experts, they downloaded Red Star from a site located outside the DPRK.^[1]