[At-Large] North Korean cyberwarfare?

Wed Jul 8 07:53:52 CDT 2009

Nothing more dangerous than a cyber attack to destroy specially developed enemies... that's why security issues is extremely important nowadays.

Vanda Scartezini
POLO Consultores Associados
&  IT Trend
Alameda Santos 1470 cjs 1407/8
01418-903 Sao Paulo,SP.
Fone + 55 11 3266.6253
Mob + 5511 8181.1464

-----Original Message-----
From: at-large-bounces at atlarge-lists.icann.org [mailto:at-large-bounces at atlarge-lists.icann.org] On Behalf Of Beau Brendler
Sent: Wednesday, July 08, 2009 9:08 AM
To: At-Large Worldwide
Subject: [At-Large] North Korean cyberwarfare?

Interesting subject given the venue for our next meeting

BB

Official: N. Korea believed behind cyber attacks
By HYUNG-JIN KIM (Associated Press Writer)
>From Associated Press
July 08, 2009 7:36 AM EDT

SEOUL, South Korea - South Korean intelligence officials believe North Korea or pro-Pyongyang forces in South Korea committed cyber attacks that paralyzed major South Korean and U.S. Web sites, a lawmaker's aide said Wednesday.

The sites of 11 South Korean organizations including the presidential Blue House and the Defense Ministry went down or had access problems since late Tuesday, according to the state-run Korea Information Security Agency. Agency spokeswoman Ahn Jeong-eun said 11 U.S. sites suffered similar problems.

On Wednesday, the National Intelligence Service told a group of South Korean lawmakers it believes that North Korea or North Korean sympathizers in the South "were behind" the attacks, according to an aide to one of the lawmakers briefed on the information.

The aide spoke on condition of anonymity citing the sensitivity of the information. He refused to allow the name of the lawmaker he works for to be published.

The National Intelligence Service - South Korea's main spy agency - said it couldn't immediately confirm the report.

Earlier Wednesday, the agency said in a statement that 12,000 computers in South Korea and 8,000 computers overseas had been infected and used for the cyber attack.

The agency said it believed the attack was "thoroughly" prepared and committed by hackers "at the level of a certain organization or state." It said it was cooperating with the American investigative authorities to examine the case.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency said military intelligence officers were looking at the possibility that the attack may have been committed by North Korean hackers and pro-North Korea forces in South Korea. South Korea's Defense Ministry said it could not confirm the report.

South Korean media reported in May that North Korea was running a cyber warfare unit that tries to hack into U.S. and South Korean military networks to gather confidential information and disrupt service.

An initial investigation in South Korea found that many personal computers were infected with a virus program ordering them to visit major official Web sites in South Korea and the U.S. at the same time, Korean information agency official Shin Hwa-su said. There has been no immediate reports of similar cyber attack in other Asian countries.

In the U.S., the Treasury Department, Secret Service, Federal Trade Commission and Transportation Department Web sites were all down at varying points over the U.S. Independence Day holiday weekend and into this week, according to American officials inside and outside the government.

Others familiar with the U.S. outage, which is called a denial of service attack, said that the fact that the government Web sites were still being affected three days after it began signaled an unusually lengthy and sophisticated attack. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the matter.

Yonhap said that prosecutors have found some of the cyber attacks on the South Korean sites were accessed from overseas. Yonhap, citing an unnamed prosecution official, said the cyber attack used a method common to Chinese hackers.

Prosecutors were not immediately available for comment.

Shin, the Information Security Agency official, said the initial probe had not yet uncovered evidence about where the cyber outages originated. Police also said they had not discovered where the outages originated. Police officer Jeong Seok-hwa said that could take several days.

Some of the South Korean sites remained unstable or inaccessible on Wednesday. The site of the presidential Blue House could be accessed, but those for the Defense Ministry, the ruling Grand National Party and the National Assembly could not.

Ahn said there were no immediate reports of financial damage or leaking of confidential national information. The alleged attacks appeared aimed only at paralyzing Web sites, she said.

South Korea's Defense Ministry and Blue House said Wednesday that there has been no leak of any documents.

The paralysis took place because of denial of service attacks, in which floods of computers all try to connect to a single site at the same time, overwhelming the server that handles the traffic, the South Korean agency said in a statement.

The agency is investigating the case with police and prosecutors, said spokeswoman Ahn.

-----Original Message-----
>From: Cheryl Langdon-Orr <langdonorr at gmail.com>
>Sent: Jul 7, 2009 4:46 PM
>To: LAC DISCUSS <lac-discuss-en at atlarge-lists.icann.org>
>Cc: Robin Gross <robin at ipjustice.org>, At-Large Worldwide <at-large at atlarge-lists.icann.org>
>Subject: Re: [At-Large] [lac-discuss-en] Deadline for Public Comment on IRT	Report
>
>It is my plan (which I expect ExCom to endorse at our meeting next week, so
>we can start activity to formalize ASAP before the ALAC Meeting at the end
>of this month) to take this important (dare I say landmark) Joint Statement
>through the same endorsement and Vote process that we did with the various
>Summit statements... So that it becomes a piece of formal  ALAC Policy
>Advice and then send it to the BOARD as advice from the ALAC which we can do
>at any point in time but will be useful as they consider the outcomes of the
>'roadshow' process re IRT that is about to start... This also means that
>whilst not altering the delivered Joint Statement text per se, we can add to
>strengthen and make ALAC At-Large specific points (e.g. add the specific
>endorsement from ALSes and RALO's  etc.,)  and any additional comments and
>notes as appendixes to the Joint work done Ad-Hoc at ICANN 35...
>I also want specific input from the talent pool IRT WG we put together (*so
>can STaff ensure this goes out to that list*)  as well and will ask that the
>'Commons' we set up for these activities, be used for the 'At-Large Comment
>period' on it so we can get as much individual input as possible (in any
>language) this said it means RALO's and ALSes need to mobilize to get these
>additional / supplementary POV's ready to go...  I will also write to Robyn/
>NCUC formally to let them know what we are doing how we need to do it and
>that ancillary work to the statement may end up being attached to our final
>ALAC Advice to the Board...
>CLO ( who will be away from office for a couple of days so Vanda acts as
>ALAC Chair)
>
>
>
>2009/7/8 Carlton Samuels <carlton.samuels at uwimona.edu.jm>
>
>> Dear Colleagues:
>> If only because I find it offensive to reason, I have raised before
>> now my strong opposition to elements of the IRT Report, especially
>> this matter of globally-protected marks.  The University of the West
>> Indies ALS has also made a public comment to the consultation.
>>
>> I believe it would be instructive and encourage all LACRALO ALS go to
>> the wiki and endorse this joint ALAC-NCUC statement.
>>
>> Kind regards,
>> Carlton Samuels
>> The University of the West Indies
>>
>> On Tue, Jul 7, 2009 at 7:39 AM, Dev Anand Teelucksingh
>> <admin at ttcsweb.org> wrote:
>> >
>> > The Joint Statement on the IRT Report From ALAC and NCUC :
>> >
>> https://st.icann.org/gnso-liaison/index.cgi?joint_statement_on_the_irt_report_from_alac_and_ncuc
>> >
>> > Dev T
>> >
>> > Andres Piazza wrote:
>> >>
>> >> Dear All, today is the deadline for presenting Public Comments at the
>> >> ITR Report. This is the link:
>> >> http://www.icann.org/en/public-comment/#irt-report
>> >> You may remember that ALAC has been very active at Sydney (and before)
>> about this, where this document was made:
>> https://st.icann.org/alac-docs/index.cgi?statement_of_the_alac_on_the_irt_s_final_report_al_alac_st_0609_1
>> >>
>> >> In fact, at the Public Forum, Cheryl (ALAC Chair) and Robin Gross (NCUC
>> Chair) provided a statement together.
>> >>
>> >> I particularly consider interesting the advice provided by Carlos
>> Aguirre (he has been insisting in this since Paris Meeting, when New GTLD
>> were announced), that you will find at the comments in the link I posted
>> above. Personally and algo from a legal perspective, I consider this advice
>> as an important alternative in order to avoid legal conflicts.
>> >>
>> >> During this week we will be providing some feedback from Sydney and
>> working with the Agenda.
>> >>
>> >> Warm Regards,
>> >>
>> >> Andrés Piazza
>> >> LACRALO Chair
>> >> _________________________________________________________________
>> >> Stay up to date on your PC, the Web, and your mobile phone with Windows
>> Live
>> >> http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/119462413/direct/01/
>> >> _______________________________________________
>> >> lac-discuss-en mailing list
>> >> lac-discuss-en at atlarge-lists.icann.org
>> >>
>> http://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/lac-discuss-en_atlarge-lists.icann.org
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > lac-discuss-en mailing list
>> > lac-discuss-en at atlarge-lists.icann.org
>> >
>> http://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/lac-discuss-en_atlarge-lists.icann.org
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>> http://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/lac-discuss-en_atlarge-lists.icann.org
>>
>
>
>
>-- 
>Cheryl Langdon-Orr
>(CLO)
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