US cyber vulnerabilities fuel N. Korea’s nuclear arsenal, but solutions are near: DARPA official
"We are essentially funding nuclear weapons development in North Korea with our bad software practices," said Kathleen Fisher, director of DARPA’s Information Innovation Office.
By Carley Welch
on February 11, 2025 at 3:15 PM
WASHINGTON — The US’s vulnerable cybersecurity systems are indirectly allowing North Korea to bolster its nuclear arsenal, but thanks to existing technology this can be easily avoided, an official from the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency said Monday.
North Korea is able to use the funds it acquires from ransomware attacks on US systems and those of other countries to pay for the development of nuclear weapons, Kathleen Fisher, director of DARPA’s Information Innovation Office, said during an agency event Monday.
However, thanks to the advanced technology DARPA has funded and industry and the Pentagon have been able to develop, stopping the ransomware attacks is preventable. The problem lies within getting the tech into the hands of the right people, which is often bogged down by bureaucratic processes like authority to process (ATO) procedures, Fisher said.
“We are essentially funding nuclear weapons development in North Korea with our bad software practices,” she said. “We know how to do better. It’s like all of that [North Korea’s ransomware attacks] is even worse, because we know how to do better. Imagine a world where our software is not riddled with these vulnerabilities.”
https://breakingdefense.com/2025/02/us-cyber-vulnerabilities-fuel-n-koreas-nuclear-arsenal-but-solutions-are-near-darpa-official/
