N. Korea suspected in cyber attack

The nation`s spy agency yesterday pinpointed North Korea as the mastermind of the latest cyber attack on key administrative websites both here and in the United States.

The National Intelligence Service, while briefing lawmakers, said the reclusive communist state seemed to have unleashed the "Distributed Denial of Service" virus.

Experts said despite its impoverishment, the North is likely to have attained a crude level of such hacking expertise.

"We have heard that North Korea has been training its people over the past several years, and was biding its time before experimenting on the rest of the world," said professor Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies here.

Citing the progress in the Korea Computer Center in the North, he said that Pyongyang was likely preparing for cyber warfare.



But he warned against fingering the North with no concrete evidence.

Inter-Korean relations remain strained, with Pyongyang refusing to attend the six-nation talks on its denuclearization despite its May nuclear test.

Since the Tuesday attack that shut down more than 20 Korean and U.S. websites, authorities including Cheong Wa Dae have stepped up a government alert to cope with such hacking attempts.

The National Intelligence Service and the Public Administration Ministry called for the infected ministries - including themselves - to strengthen vigilance against viruses.

The contaminated sites included Cheong Wa Dae, the Korean Defense Ministry and Foreign Ministry, and also many U.S. sites - notably, the White House, the U.S. Secret Service and the U.S. Department of State.

The officials of the infected government departments claimed that because the virus serves nothing more than to ratchet up internet traffic to cause system overload, the hacking was more a nuisance than anything else.

"This particular form of virus cannot be viewed as a fatal attack on confidential information, due to both its form and target, since the websites were out in the open anyways," said a Foreign Ministry official.

Defense Ministry officials said critical information was untouched because the virus failed to contaminate a separate internet service they use.

"We have two separate services, and the virus struck only the one that public users access," said Major Seo Young-seok of the ministry`s public relations office.

But critics were quick to point out the virus did cause confusion and inconvenience for users who sought access to the contaminated sites.

"Not to mention that it makes the government look inefficient and unprepared," said one researcher of a state-run technology institute on condition of anonymity.

Some of the websites were normalized as of yesterday, but others remained inaccessible.

Last month, the Defense Security Command said the military network was subject to up to 95,000 hacking attempts on a daily basis.

(jemmie@heraldm.com)



By Kim Ji-hyun