
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- South Korea said multiple
government and private sector websites were hacked on
Tuesday's anniversary of the start of the Korean War, and
Seoul issued a cyberattack alert warning officials and
citizens to take security measures.
Government websites, including the one
for the presidential Blue House, and some media servers were
attacked, according to a statement from the science
ministry. The statement said the sites were hacked and that
a team was investigating.
The government alert is meant to warn
officials and citizens of possible cyberattacks and urge
them to enhance their server and computer security measures.
The shutdown happened on the 63rd
anniversary of the beginning of the Korean War. It wasn't
immediately clear who was responsible, but both Koreas have
traded accusations of cyberattacks in recent years.
South Korean officials say that North
Korea orchestrated a cyberattack in March that shut down
tens of thousands of computers and servers at South Korean
broadcasters and banks. Seoul said in April that an initial
investigation pointed to a North Korean military-run spy
agency as the culprit.
North Korea in recent weeks has pushed
for diplomatic talks with Washington. But tensions ran high
on the Korean Peninsula in March and April, with North Korea
delivering regular threats over U.N. sanctions and
U.S.-South Korean military drills.
Investigators detected similarities
between the March cyberattack and past hacking attributed to
the North Korean spy agency, including the recycling of 30
previously used malware programs - out of a total of 76 used
in the attack, South Korea's internet security agency said.
The March 20 cyberattack struck 48,000
computers and servers, hampering banks for two to five days.
Officials have said that no bank records or personal data
were compromised. Staffers at TV broadcasters KBS, MBC and
YTN were unable to log on to news systems for several days,
although programming continued during that period. No
government, military or infrastructure targets were
affected.
South Korea's National Intelligence
Service said North Korea was behind a denial of service
attack in 2009 that crippled dozens of websites, including
that of the presidential office. Seoul also believes the
North was responsible for cyberattacks on servers of
Nonghyup bank in 2011 and Joongang Ilbo, a national daily
newspaper, in 2012.
North Korea also blamed South Korea
and the United States for cyberattacks in March that
temporarily disabled Internet access and websites in North
Korea, where a small number of people can go online.
Experts believe North Korea trains
large teams of cyber warriors and that the South and its
allies should be prepared against possible attacks on key
infrastructure and military systems. If the inter-Korean
conflict were to move into cyberspace, South Korea's deeply
wired society would have more to lose than North Korea's,
which largely remains offline.