North Korea launches own version of Facebook

North Korea has finally launched its own version of Facebook.

Go to starcon.net.kp and you’ll find a very familiar looking website. It’s called “Best Korea’s Social Network” and the homepage has a thin blue banner at the top with a search field for “people, #hashtags, !groups.”

After you register for an account, you can upload a cover photo and profile picture, find friends and message them, post a status message and scroll through a News Feed.

Doug Madory, director of internet analysis at Dyn, discovered the site on Friday.

He suspects that someone in North Korea made it as an experiment, but finds the whole thing puzzling for many reasons.

“It’s very unusual to have websites hosted in North Korea,” Madory told CNNMoney.

“[I’m] not sure this was an official North Korean government project. But someone inside the country had to have done this.”

However, within a few hours of its launch, the site’s was hacked by a Scottish teenager. Andrew McKean, an 18-year-old college student from Scotland, said he had guessed the security credentials for the website after learning that the default ones for phpDolphin – the particular Facebook clone used – were the predictable “admin” and “password”.

North Korea’s internet laws are extremely strict. The majority of citizens are banned from using the internet and the handful allowed are monitored closely, according to Martyn Williams, a senior correspondent at IDGnews service.

North Korea internet laws are notoriously strict. The vast majority of citizens are banned from using the internet and those allowed are monitored closely, according to Martyn Williams, a senior correspondent at IDG news service.

It’s unclear when exactly the site launched, or how many people have already signed up. But some who have also found a way to exploit its weaknesses with a little fun.

The homepage, for example, was at one point full of photos of Kim Jong Un as the boy from “Up in the Air.” And there were a few phony accounts posing as the North Korean leader.

“Enjoy it while you can,” Williams wrote on his blog. “I expect the site will be taken down when an engineer at the [internet service provider] realises it’s public and attracting attention.”

Courtesy: CNN