The US' Cyber Attack on South Korea.

At roughly the time Rihanna was scheduled to take to the stage in Toronto last night computer systems in South Korea came under a sustained cyber-attack which shut down the country's banking system and at least one TV network. The South Koreans are still working to get everything back online and figure out exactly what happened. However is appears that this was sophisticated attack using a Stuxnet of Flame style virus rather then the type of low-tech Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attacks that have been sweeping eastern Europe recently.

Therefore the attack was obviously carried out by the US. However they wanted everybody to think it was the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in retaliation for the fresh sanctions following the DPRK's recent nuclear test. Demonstrating that the US and the DPRK are operating almost as hand in glove at the moment the DPRK helped bait the trap by yesterday putting out computer generated video showing a nuclear attack on the White House. Fortunately the Israelis who this was really aimed at had already prepared a video mocking the DPRK video.

Obviously this brings up the issue of cyber-security which is a big global issue at the moment but especially between the US and China. The collapse of the banking system touches on the current issues in Cyprus/Syria and the European Union (EU). The shutting down of a TV station touches on all the issues of press freedom and censorship that are going on in Britain and in the US where Obama is gaining a reputation as one of the most repressive Presidents in history. Obviously if you assumed that the DPRK had carried out the attack this raises all sorts of questions about how the supposedly isolated nation was able mount such a sophisticated attack that raised such timely questions about these complex global issues. As the DPRK and Iran are part of Bush's "Axis of Evil" it's pretty easy to use discussions about the DPRK as a metaphor for Iran which is one of if not the main item on the agenda for Obama's trip to Israel. However with the tour of the Iron Dome system Rihanna's 777 Tour is clearly also on the agenda.

Obviously though at some point people would have worked out that the US rather then the DPRK had carried out the attack especially as the US has been dropping major hints such as flying B-52 bombers over South Korea. This leads to a discussion of why the US is backing the repressive, totalitarian values of a nearly bankrupt nation like the DPRK against the democratic, libertarian values of it's technologically advanced and prosperous neighbour South Korea. Although the religious element makes exact comparisons difficult Israel is wrestling with these sort of questions of totalitarianism versus libertarianism in it's own internal politics. Following the recent election and formation of a coalition the big winner has been Yesh Atid who have a somewhat totalitarian capitalist bent at the expense of the more libertarian Likud and religious parties. Therefore bringing up the issue through the Korea conflict the US was trying to prise the lid off Israel's often very complex politics in order to increase the US control over Israel.

Personally I think that rather than trying to solve the complicated and often intractable problems of the middle east Obama should have stayed home until he's proved he can solve the small and simple problem known as Chris Brown.

On a related note on Sunday (17/3/13) a pair of British holiday makers were shot and wounded as they returned to their P&O Cruise ship in Rihanna's native Barbados. As with Rihanna's festive interloper and the Imani Green case it spawned in Jamaica this shooting was obviously set up by the UK to pile pressure on Barbados. It achieves this by not only damaging Barbados' reputation as a tourist destination which is massively important to the island's economy but by giving the UK an excuse to be on the phone with the Bajan authorities every five minutes enquiry about the couple's medical condition and how the investigation is progressing (2 arrests have been made apparently).

This pressure appears to be having some effect because since the incident happened the Bajan government have been using Rihanna's tourism ambassador role to try and get me to give them some help. Unfortunately I've been unable to do that because of the extra workload created by Rihanna's refusal to provide accurate and timely information about how her tour is progressing.

This does rather highlight how self-destructive Rihanna's relationship with Chris Brown really is because her efforts to keep him out of prison are causing her to launch something of an all out war against everything she claims to value. After all this latest incident is only going to re-ignite the debate that's been going on in the Bajan Parliament about whether Rihanna should be stripped of her ambassador role. It's not hard to imagine that some people are using that as a metaphor for Rihanna's Bajan citizenship. 

17:55 on 20/3/13.