North Korea is known as an authoritarian state but researchers have found their technological systems to be following the same path.
Researchers have scrutinized the Linux distribution, Red Star OS, in North Korea and found it to be very restrictive. Previously, the operating system was found to be watermarking all the files on the USB (to track people involved in dealing with illegal stuff). Now the researchers have found it very rigid on any modifications made in the system files; if anyone tries to modify any system files on the operating system the PC reboots.
From this, one thing is clear, that North Korea has been working to develop all the technology in-house – from anti-virus software to web browsers, even encryption is custom developed. The possible reason for this could be to avoid any backdoors from foreign agencies.
But, more then backdoors it seems North Korean government wants to restrict users to their point of view only. If you dare play around with censorship you better get ready to face the consequences, this seems to be a message from the government.
This is also a reminder that open source software doesn’t mean freedom rather a script that supports freedom is, in reality, a key to freedom.
