Erstellt am: 23. 12. 2014 - 13:26 Uhr

North Korea's 1000 IP addresses

With so few connections what does an internet shutdown mean? Reality Check looks at the cyber attack on Pyongyang.

North Korea

Key North Korean websites are back online after an hours-long shutdown. It followed a U.S. threat to respond to a crippling cyber-attack on Sony Pictures that Washington blames on Pyongyang. Anyone with a North Korean IP would have found it nearly impossible to connect to the web in the last 24 hours.

The White House declined to say whether the U.S. government was responsible for the internet shutdown in one of the least-wired and poorest countries in the world. But according to reports, there are currently only 1024 IP addresses in the country. Therefore, an internet outage isn't exactly going to harm the country's infrastructure, it just means a few of the elite can't read what's publically being said outside of the country.

So assuming it was punishment for the Sony hack, why bother with an internet takedown and what is it like to log-on in North Korea anyway. We get some thoughts on all of that from Mikko Hypponen, Chief Research Officer Company at F-Secure in Finland.

Jürgen Todenhöfer

The 74 year old journalist is one of the few western journalists to spend time with ISIS fighters. Within 10 days he was given unprecedented access to ISIS areas in Syria in Iraq and spoke with ISIS leaders. What does his reporting from inside ISIS tell us about the militants' ideology? We speak with Middle East observer Michael Lüders.

The Tsuanmi: Return to Phuket

On the 26th of December, it will be 10 years since the tidal wave claimed the lives of approximately 230,000 people. And massive damage was done to the environment and businesses across the region.

In Thailand, the island of Phuket is preparing to hold a memorial service to mark the anniversary. And our South East Asia reporter Tony Cheng has returned to Phuket which, along with many west coast areas of Thailand, suffered extensive damage. He speaks with local people and assesses the legacy of that event and what steps authorities have taken to prevent a repeat of the deadly devastation.

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