It was revealed that North Korea has its own version of Facebook social media website — However, as the news came out the website got hacked!
Andrew McKean, an 18-year old from Scotland, revealed that he successfully logged into the North Korean version of Facebook (Starcon.net.kp) using “admin” and “password” as login details. This gave the Scottish teenager complete control on this website along with the power to delete and suspend users, modify the name of the website, censor content and also control the forthcoming ads. Not just this, it also gave him the authority to “see everyone’s emails”.
Dyn’s director of internet analysis Doug Madory discovered a website that looked identical to Facebook. The North Korean website Starcon.net.kp, Star is the most well-known internet service provider in North Korea, resembled Facebook so much that Madory termed it as its clone. The site has been created on similar design and idea because users are required to sign-up and upload their profile photo and cover photo in order to complete the page and then post updates. It is yet not known when this website was launched and how many users are currently registered to it.
The more startling news is that as soon as this particular website was identified, on Friday, it simply vanished from the face of the internet. This “Korea’s Best Social Network” as per RT, lets people from any part of the world register with it after uploading their profile picture. The site also allows users to post messages and upload videos and share them with their friends.
As per North Korea Tech, every single post and message on this website appear as 30 minutes old “presumably because the Dolphin software doesn’t recognize North Korea’s recently created time zone, which is 30 minutes off most of the rest of the world.” The reason behind its sudden disappearance could be, according to North Korea Tech’s Martyn Williams, is that it might be a “trial that was inadvertently made public.”
This is not the first time when North Korea has tried to make its own version other technologies. The country has also developed its own version of Linux known as Red Star OS.