in the North. The Kim Jong-il regime also guarantees housing in Pyongyang for married hackers, as well as food subsidies and a significant stipend during overseas deployments, he said.

In 2009, an American intelligence analyst, Steve Sin, compiled a report on Unit 121. In it, he writes that the most elite hackers in Unit 121 are sent to a “government-operated hotel called Chilbosan in Shenyang, China.” The Chilbosan is a luxury hotel with spacious rooms, a minibar, free Wi-Fi—and even its own band.

“The residences are communal, but by North Korean standards, are a great place to live,” Kim told Al Jazeera. “If they save up enough of the stipends they receive abroad, they can live very well when they return to the North.”

The residence sounds somewhat similar to the12-story tower that houses some of China’s most high-profile hackers, employed by the People’s Liberation Army.

According to both Kim and Sin, the cyberwarriors’ daily activities typically focus on denial-of-service attacks against South Korean government websites, banks and private businesses. They’ve also apparently tried spreading malware via video games, but without much success.

Several publications reported last night that Sony was convinced North Korea was behind the attack. However, there’s a bit of debate around the source of the breach. A North Korean official in the U.S. denied the attack today, but security experts say the attacks North Korea has used against South Korea were actually quite similar to those used against Sony.

The attack would be by far the most sophisticated attack Unit 121 has ever committed. According to BuzzFeed,