Hackers Invade Website of South Korean Government

Malware constantly demonstrates that scams based on it are most capable of reaching the whole world. One such prominent malware attack occurred during the 2nd week of June 2010 whilst security researchers spotted malicious software on a South Korean government website.

The country's national investigating branch has since been probing the cyber-attack that hit http://korea.go.kr, the chief website of SK government that enumerates civil services along with information related to the government's policies. Stated the officials on June 3, 2010, the attackers behind the website hack had been tracked to China.

As per the Ministry of Public Administration and Security (PAS), the June 9, 2010 website hack remained for some 3 hrs and 30 minutes, leading to slowing down of traffic on http://korea.go.kr. Google published this on June 10, 2010.

Additionally, a ministry representative said that hackers employed some 120 online servers based in China. According to him, by adopting urgent measures, the government foiled the DDoS assaults, reported Google.

The Internet invasion was described as a DDoS assault because the affected website suddenly started receiving queries from such a massive number of PCs that it became overloaded and thus led to its collapse.

Said officials, the Ministry of PAS-controlled computer center of the government immediately acted so that access to the website was stopped. Currently, the center is trying to locate the hackers with the help of associated government offices, they said. Fortunately, as per the ministry, it was possible to avoid large-scale destruction of the outbreak.

Significantly, the attacks occurred just when cyber assaults traced to North Korea is worrying South Korea. Actually, it was discovered that a North Korean torpedo had been responsible for sinking a South Korean warship during March 2010.

Meanwhile, according to the security researchers, the current attack follows the first of similar kind that occurred in July 2009 when hackers temporarily disabled South Korean and US commercial and government websites. The intelligence chief of South Korea blamed North Korea of executing those hacks through China-based servers.

Remarking about this, Chief of the Defence Security Command, Major General Bae Deuk-Shik stated that there was a cell of top hackers in the North's army. Google reported this on June 10, 2010.

Related article: Hackers Redirect Windows Live Search to Malicious Sites

» SPAMfighter News - 6/21/2010