Officials: N. Korea believed behind cyber attacks

kluang · 07-08-2009, 10:57 AM

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090708/...a_cyber_attack

Quote:

SEOUL, South Korea – South Korean intelligence officials believe North Korea or pro-Pyongyang forces committed cyber attacks that paralyzed major South Korean and U.S. government Web sites, aides to two lawmakers said Wednesday.

The sites of 11 South Korean organizations, including the presidential Blue House and the Defense Ministry, went down or had access problems since late Tuesday, according to the state-run Korea Information Security Agency. Agency spokeswoman Ahn Jeong-eun said 11 U.S. sites suffered similar problems. She said the agency is investigating the case with police and prosecutors.

In the U.S., the Treasury Department, Secret Service, Federal Trade Commission and Transportation Department Web sites were all down at varying points over the July 4 holiday weekend and into this week, according to American officials inside and outside the government.

Others familiar with the U.S. outage, which is called a denial of service attack, said that the fact that the government Web sites were still being affected three days after it began signaled an unusually lengthy and sophisticated attack. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the matter.

The Korea Information Security Agency also attributed the attacks to denial of service.

Yang Moo-jin, a professor at Seoul's University of North Korean Studies, said he doubts whether the impoverished North has the capability to knock down the Web sites.

But Hong Hyun-ik, an analyst at the Sejong Institute think tank, said the attack could have been done by either North Korea or China, saying he "heard North Korea has been working hard to hack into" South Korean networks.

On Wednesday, the National Intelligence Service told a group of South Korean lawmakers it believes that North Korea or North Korean sympathizers "were behind" the attacks, according to an aide to one of lawmakers who was briefed on the information.

An aide to another lawmaker who was briefed also said the NIS suspects North Korea or its followers were responsible.

The aides spoke on condition of anonymity and refused to allow the names of the lawmakers they work for to be published, citing the classified nature of the information.

Both aides said the information was delivered in writing to lawmakers who serve on the National Assembly's intelligence committee.

The National Intelligence Service — South Korea's main spy agency — declined to confirm the information.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency said military intelligence officers were looking at the possibility that the attack may have been committed by North Korean hackers and pro-North Korea forces in South Korea. South Korea's Defense Ministry said it could not confirm the report.

Earlier Wednesday, the NIS said in a statement that 12,000 computers in South Korea and 8,000 computers overseas had been infected and used for the cyber attack.

The agency said it believed the attack was "thoroughly" prepared and committed by hackers "at the level of a certain organization or state." It said it was cooperating with the American investigators to examine the case.

South Korean media reported in May that North Korea was running a cyber warfare unit that tries to hack into U.S. and South Korean military networks to gather confidential information and disrupt service.

An initial investigation in South Korea found that many personal computers were infected with a virus program ordering them to visit major official Web sites in South Korea and the U.S. at the same time, Korean information agency official Shin Hwa-su said. There has been no immediate reports of similar cyber attack in other Asian countries.

Yonhap said that prosecutors have found some of the cyber attacks on the South Korean sites were accessed from overseas. Yonhap, citing an unnamed prosecution official, said the cyber attack used a method common to Chinese hackers.

Prosecutors were not immediately available for comment.

Shin, the Information Security Agency official, said the initial probe had not yet uncovered evidence about where the cyber outages originated. Police also said they had not discovered where the outages originated. Police officer Jeong Seok-hwa said that could take several days.

Some of the South Korean sites remained unstable or inaccessible Wednesday. The site of the presidential Blue House could be accessed, but those for the Defense Ministry, the ruling Grand National Party and the National Assembly could not.

Ahn said there were no immediate reports of financial damage or leaking of confidential national information. The alleged attacks appeared aimed only at paralyzing Web sites, she said.

South Korea's Defense Ministry and Blue House said that there has been no leak of any documents.

The Glorious Freedom of Greatest, Never Oppressive Government of the Great Democratic, Fair, Equitable, Impartial, Just, Partisan, Unbiased, Unprejudiced, Square and Beneficial Prosperous People's Agricultural-Surplus Nuclear-free Republic of Korea Northern Section is trying cyber attacks now?

Since when they have internet?

Kina · 07-08-2009, 01:03 PM

They would've gotten more of a rise if they disabled MySpace, lol.

manta · 07-08-2009, 01:06 PM

Don't worry people, they still have windows 98

RNB · 07-08-2009, 02:12 PM

Fucking Asians and their computer skills.

Freshgrease · 07-08-2009, 05:18 PM

Yay. It means more computer security jobs will be opening up for me to apply for.

kluang · 07-10-2009, 06:13 AM

The reason they attack S.Korea is because there's a fucking Gundam at Odaiba, Japan.

Kim Jong Il is prolly shitting his pants at this very moment.

icedraon620 · 07-13-2009, 11:36 AM

His brainwashed boy is going to take the throne. That's gonna be fun.

**Mal** · 07-13-2009, 11:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by icedraon620

His brainwashed drunkard boy is going to take the throne. That's gonna be fun.

Fix'd .

07-08-2009, 01:03 PM	#2
Kina Star-Stuff Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: You do not matter. None of us do. Age: 21 Posts: 3,433 Thanks: 755 Thanked 1,181 Times in 646 Posts	Re: Officials: N. Korea believed behind cyber attacks They would've gotten more of a rise if they disabled MySpace, lol. __________________ Luck is a skill. <Jonathan3 Don't hate on Rival. When I wake on the last day of my life, I want to face it without regret.

07-08-2009, 01:06 PM	#3
manta No Leaf Clover Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Tropic Age: 26 Posts: 411 Thanks: 1,017 Thanked 1,357 Times in 703 Posts	Re: Officials: N. Korea believed behind cyber attacks Don't worry people, they still have windows 98 __________________

07-08-2009, 02:12 PM	#4
RNB El Topo Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Pennsylvania Age: 20 Posts: 1,169 Thanks: 3,294 Thanked 1,887 Times in 822 Posts	Re: Officials: N. Korea believed behind cyber attacks Fucking Asians and their computer skills. __________________ "Nature loves to be hidden." - Heraclitus

07-08-2009, 05:18 PM	#5
Freshgrease ▂▅▇█▓▒░◕‿‿◕░▒▓█▇▅▂ Join Date: Feb 2005 Age: 25 Posts: 4,112 Thanks: 1,489 Thanked 1,005 Times in 546 Posts	Re: Officials: N. Korea believed behind cyber attacks Yay. It means more computer security jobs will be opening up for me to apply for. __________________

07-10-2009, 06:13 AM	#6
kluang One Punch Man Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 6,418 Thanks: 3,186 Thanked 4,659 Times in 2,099 Posts	Re: Officials: N. Korea believed behind cyber attacks The reason they attack S.Korea is because there's a fucking Gundam at Odaiba, Japan. Kim Jong Il is prolly shitting his pants at this very moment. __________________ To err is human, to forgive, divine. Humans aren't machines... they have souls, feelings. They live, they die, they love, they hate... And yes, they even make mistakes..... When kluang finds you creepy and wrong then you are beyond horrible. He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you. Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Being Malaysian is about driving in a German car to an Indian restaurant for an Indonesian food, then travelling home, grabbing a Pakistani kebab on the way, to sit on Swedish furniture and watch American shows on a Japanese TV. Because we have no originality.

07-13-2009, 11:36 AM	#7
icedraon620 God of Tanukis Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: West Coast Age: 19 Posts: 544 Thanks: 17 Thanked 116 Times in 69 Posts	Re: Officials: N. Korea believed behind cyber attacks His brainwashed boy is going to take the throne. That's gonna be fun. __________________ The things I do for love.

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