North Korean hackers planted 33 types of malicious codes into these computer systems in a scheme on a cyber attack as big as the 2013 attack that froze Korean banks and broadcasters for more than a week.
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North Korean hackers managed to steal thousands of records from private firms and state agencies in the South including defence industry information and files from Korean Air, Seoul police said Monday.
In March, the South’s spy agency said it had intercepted an attempt to hack into South Korean computer networks to attack the transport system’s control network, blaming the North for the attempt.
South Korea has been on heightened alert against cyber attacks by the North after Pyongyang conducted a nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket launch in February that led to new United Nations sanctions.
The hacking originated from 16 servers based in the North’s capital Pyongyang, police said, adding the North had stolen more than 42,000 internal records.
North Korean hackers stole tens of thousands of documents related to the defense industry – including US fighter jet designs – as part of a much broader cyberattack on South Korea, Seoul officials said on Monday.
The agency concluded from its investigation that North Korea began hacking the networks in July 2014 and continued for over a year and a half until February, gaining access to over 130,000 computers. Out of the total 42,000 documents stolen, around 40,000 were defence-related.
The attack targeted about 10 different company networks, including that of Hanjin Group, the holding group for Korean Air, and SK Group, a leading South Korean conglomerate, local news network YTN reported Monday.
South Korean media said the two conglomerates were the SK and Hanjin groups, but police declined to confirm that. In 2005, the parties agreed to the verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and that North Korea must abandon all its nuclear programs and relinquish its nuclear weapons. “The leak will likely have a negligible impact on national security”, the official said.
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The South Korean police agency’s cyber investigation unit uncovered the hacking and worked with the companies and agencies affected to neutralize the malicious codes and prevent them from being used in a large-scale cyber attack, Yonhap said.
