A Facebook clone thought to have originated in North Korea has quickly appeared and disappeared off the internet.
The site was discovered by Doug Madory, a researcher at network management company Dyn Research, who told the BBC that it is "rare to see any websites hosted in the secretive nation".
He added the clone clearly wasn't intended to be accessible from outside North Korea – its .kp address, the country's equivalent of .co.uk, gave the game away.
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StarCon.net.kp had many of the features expected to be found popular social networking sites such as Facebook, added the broadcaster, and while it's not clear who exactly created the site, "it is thought to be a test project for a future service to be offered by the nation's telecoms operator".
Around 300 accounts, including several parodies of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, were created on the site after news of it broke on Twitter.
"There were a lot of people signing up that, based on their comments, appeared to genuinely think they could reach the North Korean people through the website," Madory says.
However, the site was also hacked – by a student from Scotland. According to the International Business Times, 18-year-old Andrew McKean correctly guessed the login details on the administration page – simply "Admin" and "Password" – and gained control.
McKean said he had the power to delete users, read their emails, censor specific words and phrases and change content in the advertising spaces skirting the homepage.
Since the site's exposure and security breach, it is yet to resurface online.
