(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — A South Korean spy agency has revealed that hackers with possible ties to North Korea have attacked more than two dozen websites in South Korea and the United States including the White House.
In a prepared statement, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service said that an organization and possibly a state were responsible for the Tuesday attack. The agency added that the attacks showed signs of “meticulous preparations”.
A few South Korean media outlets, including Yonhap news agency, published reports that included quotes from parliament members who said that NIS officials revealed in a briefing that “North Korea or pro-North elements” led the attacks.
Yonhap reported that the NIS found “malicious programs” aimed at 26 US and South Korean websites, including that of the White House, where hackers attempted to overwhelm the websites’ data capacity and send them offline.
If North Korea is in fact behind these attacks, tension could rise between the two states in light of North Korea’s nuclear test in Pyongyang in May, its launching of seven ballistic missiles in July and a series of threats aimed at Seoul and Washington that were published in the North’s official media.
Though most of North Korea is banned from Internet access, intelligence sources in Seoul say the state has a division in place that focuses specifically on cyber attacks.
On Tuesday, the websites of South Korea’s presidential office, defense ministry, and the National Assembly were inundated with access requests sent by malicious software, “causing slowdown or disablement,” said South Korea’s Communications Commission.
The attacks also included some of South Korea’s national institutions, banks and media sites, knocking many of them offline Wednesday.
The presidential Blue House said that since its internal network is separated from the rest of the Internet, hackers were unable to gain access to classified data, but parts of its websites were affected by the attacks.
Additionally, the US blocked access from the country as a security measure, causing some US government websites in the country to be disabled, experts told local media.
Yonhap reported that local police and prosecutors have launched an investigation into the attacks.
In another online attack against a country’s government websites, an anti-American group of hackers broke into at least two of the US Army’s critical web servers in May.
