This talk will center on a project that has been active since July 2015, which involves attempting to understand internal North Korean conditions through the use of nmap and masscan, and the scanning of the entire North Korean IP range. In the process of undertaking this project not only was some interesting information gathered about North Korean internal political practices, postures and responses to crisis, but also a significant amount was learned about port scanning hostile and well defended networks, as well as learning a little bit about code on the side. In this presentation the lessons learned and the challenges encountered will be reviewed within the wider discussion of the importance of the use of technical tools to understand the world outside of the technical realm.

Thomas Pieragastini currently works in threat intelligence, a background in independent security research, surveillance and security studies and holds a PhD in Philosophy. Coming from academic studies in geopolitical dynamics and political theory he developed an interest in the technical realm, eventually transitioning into working in infosec full time, and developing an obsession with all things offensive security related.

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