[At-Large] North Korean cyberwarfare?

Wed Jul 8 11:32:33 CDT 2009

Hello Izumi,
On Wed, Jul 8, 2009 at 7:06 PM, Izumi AIZU <iza at anr.org> wrote:

> We can speculate - like this report that it could be North Korea
> that organized the attack, but it can also be the opposition groups
> to the existing status quo.

Quite possible, And quite hard to figure out the truth.How could anyone
possibly know who is engineering the attacks? The 'enemy' is blamed and it
is comfortable to believe that.

> Quite hard to figure out the truth.
>
> KISA, the Korean information security agency is soon to be merged
> with NIDA, host of KRNIC and the host of ICANN Seoul meeting
> in July, very soon.
>
> izumi
>
>
> 2009/7/8 Vanda Scartezini <vanda at uol.com.br>:
>  > 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.
> >
>
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