A hacker group likely run by North Korea’s government compromised the email accounts of dozens of officials, journalists and others in South Korea this year, Seoul officials said Monday, the latest cyberattack it blamed on its arch-rival.
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The organization sent phishing emails to government officials, journalists and professors who specialize in North Korean affairs to try to trick them into giving away their passwords, Seoul’s Supreme Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement.
It added that the hackers were able to retrieve passwords for 56 of some 90 accounts that they attempted to break into through a phishing method similar to the one used in Pyongyang’s previous cyber attacks.
It also comes after concerns by the government that Pyongyang may be preparing for a large-scale cyber attack on the South at a time of heightened inter-Korean tension.
The hackers allegedly set up 27 phishing sites in January posing as popular portals like Google and South Korea’s Naver.
The prosecutors believe the North Korean regime is behind the latest scam given that the hackers used the same IP address in Shenyang, China that they used when they hacked Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power in 2014.
The National Police Agency said the North’s main spy agency – the Reconnaissance General Bureau – had organised the hack in a bid to earn hard currency. Another told a separate news agency that “information was taken”. “Various malicious codes are spreading frequently on the Internet through searches and downloads, so there needs to be continuous security measures”. Another government official dismissed concerns of official document leaks saying business email hackings does not necessarily mean access to official documents.
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This is the second cyber-incident South Korean authorities have pinned on the North in less than seven days. It was unconfirmed whether employees’ office emails were hacked, said a source at the ministry.
