Empire of the Ring

After finishing the phone call with Niksic, Youngho was preoccupied for a long time.

He had been clashing with the Chinese government several times now that it seemed overwhelming, especially because China was not an easy opponent.

While thinking about that, Park Jong-il walked into the office.

“What’s that serious look on your face?”

“I just got off the phone with Earl Niksic, and he mumbled something strange.”

“Is that old man upsetting you again?”

Jong-il and Niksic always growled at each other when they met, so Jong-il always had a grudge against him.

“Oh, stop him. He’s not a stranger, you know.”

“It’s a crazy old man who can’t stand me, but you want me to be nice to him? Anyway, what did the old man say?”

“When I said we had some trouble with China, he said we couldn’t stay in the same sky with China.”

“Whoa, it’s been a long time since he said the right thing. He’s not being nonsense.”

“Niksic probably means we need to be able to stand against China.”

“It’s just an empty remark, why do you give a heavy meaning to it?”

“I want to give a meaning to that guy’s words.”

Park Jong-il glistened his eyes at Youngho’s words.

He had realized what Youngho’s remark meant.

“Are you crazy? Are you going to launch a preemptive strike against China?”

“There’s nothing I can’t do. There’s a way to attack without getting noticed by anyone. How would you know if we were to launch a cyber-attack? Nobody knows we’re operating a cyber unit, right?”

Intrigued, Jong-il leaned forward toward Youngho.

“Nobody except for a few military leaders know. But you’re really going to launch a cyber-attack? Don’t take your word back later!”

“Yeah, we can’t go on like this. We’ll have to buy some time to turn around China’s attention. But do you think our hackers who used to be white hackers do well?”

“White hackers and black hackers are all capable. There’s still a question of legal or illegal. If they do their job on orders, they’ll be more excited because they don’t have any mental burden.”

It was a common view among computer security experts to recognize white hackers as the guardian of justice, and black hackers as criminals who committed illegal acts.

The cyber unit under the royal territory consisted of all white hackers.

“But our orders will include illegal activities that black hackers do, I wonder if our agents will respond to such orders easily.”

“They’ve sworn allegiance to the royal family. Their families also moved here from Korea. They will try to take the lead in attacking any target.”

“I’m glad if so. Whatever it is, I trust you that you’ll convince them. They’re still pure guys who haven’t done anything tough yet.”

“You’re worried about everything. It’s like a war, just without guns. They’ll do better even because of their sense of duty.”

If people heard that Kazakhstan, which was only a developing country, operated a cyber unit, they would be surprised as it was difficult to train computer experts and the cost of maintaining the unit was extreme.

The cyber unit under the royal territory was an organization that Youngho made bold investments to prepare for future war.

Some 500 young Korean computer-experts were recruited to form a cyber unit equivalent to the Fourth Army, after Kazakhstan’s Army, Navy, and Air Force.

The initial goal was to operate a cyber unit of about 1,000 Korean experts, but it was not easy to recruit computer-majoring high-skilled workers, so Youngho hired young people from the royal territory to fill the members. It was still a no match to cyber units of powerful nations, but it was an overwhelming size for Kazakhstan.

The cyber unit even had a supercomputer worth just over a hundred million dollars.

The Swedish supercomputer, which was purchased through the Swedish Information Agency, boasted the world’s ninth-largest computing speed.

“Which target will make the most impact?”

“I guess shaking the bank’s computer network will work best.”

The job of a cyber unit was mostly defending attacks from the outside world. Cyber-attacks and intelligence warfare on the national infrastructure of enemy countries were rather rare.

One of the hardest-hit cases of cyber-attacks was the U.S. and Israeli cyber troops attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities, which broke down a uranium-enrichment reactor, setting back Iran’s nuclear program for a few years.

Iran made no protest although it was roughly guessing the attackers because it failed to provide clear evidence.

“Can we get through China’s security system?”

China officially claimed there were no cyber troops, but military experts believed that it had about 20,000 cyber agents.

“They say it’s hard to stop a hacker with 1,000 security experts. We won’t know for sure unless we try.”

“Okay, let’s start the operation. I don’t know how much confusion we’ll cause to China, but it’s better than staying still.”

So far, Youngho always waited for China to make provocations first.

However, he decided not to be dragged around passively anymore after talking to Niksic.

They said that an attack was a defense

It was also a way to keep China from turning its eyes to the outside world by throwing it into chaos. There seemed to be no better way to buy time than that.

Even the greatest of China would eventually shake if he kept knocking on its door.

***

“They’re pretty good. It’s not easy to break through their security.”

Jong-il appeared in a few days complaining.

“Isn’t it that we’re not good enough?”

“They are my best guys in Korea. They’ve been in the top list of the international hacker competition before.”

The fight between the informers and the blockers had been going on all over the world, and it had been holding various competitions to train security experts and attract the attention of the talented, and one of them was the International Hacking Competition.

Korean youths were sweeping such international competitions, but the Korean government did not provide a great environment and treatment to those talented people, so many of them were leaving the country.

So, the Arirang royal territory had recruited such smart people to use them as cyber soldiers and computer instructors treat them with an annual salary of hundreds of millions won.

The world was suffering every day because of the gunless war, but South Korea, which was trying to get on the threshold of advanced countries, still tended to treat security experts as criminals.

“I guess China has been also preparing a lot for cyber terrorism.”

“Yes, looks like it. But by 10 a.m. tomorrow, something shocking will happen.”

“Did you succeed in planting a malicious code?”

“We’ve had success every day. It was a problem that they found out in less than a few hours when we planted a malicious code. I’m confident so far, but we won’t know until tomorrow.”

“Where’s the target?”

“You have to start with small things to keep our activities hidden. First of all, I’m going to try to paralyze Peking Station.”

“What’s next?

“Phew, you have a lot of greed.”

When Youngho pressed him, Jong-il shook his head.

“Next time we’re going after the refinery and the power plant.”

“Then the security will get stronger.”

“It doesn’t matter because we’ll plant malicious code in advance and only have different dates to be implemented.”

“If you succeed, I’ll have to pay the bonus. It’s not a crime, it’s for the country. If they work under the cyber unit they’re definitely on the path of becoming a soldier.”

“Well, it’s rather just a good job for them. It’s like a playground for them where they get paid a lot of money and good treatments.”

No matter what the cyber troops thought, they were strong allies for Youngho.

The main reason for raising cyber troops was to defend the country from enemy attacks. He did not intend to launch cyber-attacks like this. However, if this was a success, it would be a great idea to shake China often in this way from now on. There was no reason to say no as this was better than shooting missiles since it did not cause huge security damages and human casualties.

“Go to Korea and bring more cyber troops.”

“For that kind of job, I won’t need to step forward. People who used to play with computers get along with each other. If the conditions are right, they’ll bring dozens of good friends, too.”

“Then tell them to go ahead. You don’t need to be Korean, so tell them to bring all the friends who made their names as hackers. I promise to give them a house and introduce girls to date.”

“Well, I’m sure they’d be interested in the ladies here.”

Central Asian men and women had a peculiar charm because many ethnicities had been mingled together for a long time.

Because of such beauty, there was even an incident in which Chinese merchants in Kazakhstan bought virgins for money and sent them to China. It did not happen anymore and Youngho rooted those criminals out as soon as he found out about it.

Korean rural bachelors had often sought to welcome Central Asian virgins as brides. However, since the Kazakh economy improved, the popularity of Kazakh girls to Korean rural bachelors had declined. Not many girls now would go to Korea to get married.

These days, hundreds of talented and handsome Korean young men were coming to Kazakhstan every day. This was because Kazakhstan was like a liberation zone for young Koreans looking for jobs.