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Report: North Korea's antivirus tool an 'illegal copy'

By Elizabeth Shim
North Korea has made technology a top priority in developing the economy but its SiliVaccine tool was made through illegal means, a Japan-based firm says. File Photo by How Hwee Young/EPA
North Korea has made technology a top priority in developing the economy but its SiliVaccine tool was made through illegal means, a Japan-based firm says. File Photo by How Hwee Young/EPA

May 2 (UPI) -- North Korea used foreign technology to develop a computer antivirus, despite earlier claims it had developed the SiliVaccine tool without outside input.

Trend Micro, a Japan-based antivirus giant, said the North Koreans illegally copied its intellectual property, or source code, Forbes reported.

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"It's available in the vast majority of products, online testing tools and even third-party security products through various OEMs," original equipment manufacturers, a Trend representative said.

"It appears that a compiled code library was illegally copied, repacked and then wrapped with additional application code not originating from Trend Micro to build a normal AV scanning application called SiliVaccine."

Israeli cybersecurity firm Check Point said the technology dated back to 2005.

A Check Point representative said the 10-year-old code was "probably sourced from an old version of the software obtained from a Trend OEM partner."

"But which one, we don't know."

North Korea has made technology a top priority in developing the economy.

South Korean newspaper Herald Business reported Tuesday the North Korean government is training 3,000 mobile game developers annually.

North Korea's Arirang smartphones now carry games like a "fake" or knock-off Angry Birds game, as well as games where you can nurture and raise digital pets, according to the report.

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North Korea's top Kim Il Sung University has a department dedicated to studying mobile application technology, and the university's Korean language and literature department focuses on writing the games' plotlines, the report states.

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