`N.K. cyber combat unit has 100 hackers`

Many eyes are on North Korea`s cyber warfare capabilities as several officials in Seoul and Washington fingered the reclusive state as the origin of recent cyber attacks.

The National Intelligence Service suspects North Korea or its sympathizers may have been behind the internet attack against major South Korean websites of government agencies, banks and internet portals, which was first detected Tuesday evening, according to sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The spy agency briefed some of the lawmakers on an individual basis or showed written reports that mention North Korea as the suspected source of the attack.

Washington officials also said on Wednesday that the DDoS attacks on some 30 South Korean and U.S. websites came from an internet IP address in North Korea.

The North Korea link, described by three U.S. officials who asked for anonymity, firmly connected the attacks on U.S. government websites to cyber assaults that hit South Korean websites.



The officials said that while the internet IP addresses have been traced to North Korea, that does not necessarily mean the attack involved the Kim Jong-il government in Pyongyang.

In early May, South Korean intelligence officials said that North Korea has expanded its cyber combat unit in charge of intelligence gathering through the internet and hacking South Korean or U.S. military computer networks.

The General Staff of the North Korean People`s Army has for years been running what it calls the "technology reconnaissance team," which consists of about 100 hackers, mostly graduates of a leading military academy in Pyongyang.

"The unit`s job is to penetrate military computer networks to withdraw classified information and spread computer viruses to paralyze South Korean or U.S. systems," a South Korean intelligence official said in May.

After years of tracking which countries visited U.S. military websites the most, the U.S. Pentagon found that users from North Korea logged on most frequently.

The North Korean military also developed a variety of war simulation software including one called "100 combat methods" and computer programs that identify gunshots.

Seoul and Washington signed a memorandum of understanding on April 30 to bolster cooperation in fighting cyber terrorism against their defense networks.

Due to the distributed denial of service attacks, internet home pages, including foreign and defense ministries, as well as the presidential office, were shut down or slowed down for hours.

North Korea, which has been shooting missiles and making threats against the United States and the Lee Myung-bak administration, has been suspected to have accumulated enough technological knowhow and brainpower to initiate cyber warfare.

South Korea`s defense ministry said yesterday it will set up a military command next year, instead of 2012 as planned earlier, to better protect the nation`s systems from possible cyber attacks.

(sophie@heraldm.com)



By Kim So-hyun