(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Amidst speculation from officials that North Korea was behind a string of unusually lengthy and sophisticated denial of service attacks that disabled some high-profile US and South Korean websites beginning July 4, South Korean intelligence reports that the attack was traced to 86 IP addresses in 16 countries.
According to the Associated Press, a member of the parliamentary intelligence committee said no North Korean IP addresses were among the 16 countries that were implicated via IP — a list that includes South Korea, the US, Japan and Guatemala.
Friday’s findings, however, contradict three anonymous US officials who, earlier in the week, said the attacker’s IP address was traced to North Korea.
The National Intelligence Service continues to investigate and said it is far from reasoning any country out, warning that it is too early to conclude that North Korea was responsible as the investigations were still under way. It did say, however, that circumstantial and technical reasons lead a path to North Korea.
Beginning July 4, websites for several US government agencies, including some that patrol cyber crime, have been under attack by a DoS attack, which made many of these sites slow or inaccessible for as many as three days.
South Korea was first hit by the attack Tuesday when 12 sites were struck, followed by a Wednesday attack on 10 others, then a third attack Thursday on seven sites, including one belonging to the National Cyber Security Center, which is affiliated with the NIS.
