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Subscribe to RSSSeveral major South Korean banks and broadcast stations are stuck today after a cyberattack paralyzed their computer systems. Authorities have yet to resolve the hack.
SEOUL -- South Korean police were investigating a hacking attack on an Internet provider that brought down the servers of three broadcasters and two major banks on Wednesday, and the army raised its alert level due to concerns of North Korean involvement.
The network provided by LG UPlus Corp. showed a page that said it had been hacked by a group calling itself the "Whois Team," an unknown group. It featured three skulls and a warning that this was the beginning of "Our Movement."
Servers at television networks YTN, MBC and KBS were affected as well as Shinhan Bank and NongHyup Bank, both major financial institutions, police and government officials said.
"We sent down teams to all affected sites. We are now assessing the situation. This incident is pretty massive, and it will take a few days to collect evidence," a police official said.
Police and government officials declined to speculate on whether North Korea, which has threatened to attack both South Korea and the United States after it was hit with United Nations sanctions for its February nuclear test, was behind the cyberattack.
North Korea has in the past staged cyberattacks on the world's most wired country, targeting conservative newspapers, banks and government institutions.
South Korea's military said it was not affected but raised its state of readiness in response.
None of South Korea's oil refineries, power stations, ports or airports was affected.
The biggest attack by Pyongyang was a 10-day denial of service attack in 2011 that antivirus firm McAfee, part of Intel Corp, dubbed "Ten Days of Rain" and which it said was a bid to probe the South's computer defenses in the event of a real conflict.
Shinhan Bank, one of the financial institutions affected, said its servers were back up by 4 p.m. local time (3 a.m. ET).
Related:
Full South Korea coverage from NBC News
Full technology and science coverage from NBC News
This story was originally published on Wed Mar 20, 2013 2:49 AM EDT
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
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Let me guess the hackers are chinese? Let me guess, they live dungeons and have beards and speak trollish? Let me guess, we should probably give up some liberty for a little temporary safety? Am I getting this now? Are we in sync?
No, as none of those things have to do with each other
reno u suck dick
Where are the hackers? A song will tell you:
Hacker-bye, Baby, On the Tree Top?
If you were going to start a military attack you certainly might want to precede it with a cyber attack, which might even focus on communications centers. But banks would not be high on the list. Military installations and their supports would be the focus. So this attack appears to be geared toward sowing panic and disruption in general and not for military purposes. If it can be determined that NK was the source my question is how do you respond to it? My guess is there will be no response. The best we will see are some condemnations by political leaders, like Obama, that won't be worth the air expended to make them. In my opinion, the international community should be targeting the leadership of NK just like we targeted the leadership of Al Qaida. Cut the head off of the snake.
In the meantime, on the military side of things, the belligerence is being ratcheted up. At this point all it will take is one military action by NK towards the South or the US and the full scale war will be back on. And that might make certain elements in the ME think that the time is ripe to strike Israel again while the US is busy dealing with NK. Lets just pray that wonder boy, Obama, doesn't f---- the whole thing up.
KingK-
You are correct. Don't forget the reports of chemical weapons being used in Syria, prompting McCain and Graham to call for more military intervention as this crosses the 'red line' that Obama put out. Yeah, Grandpa John and Uncle Lyndsay, that's just what we need, more war.
The good news. Buy stocks in military clothing providers and paint companies. We long ago ditched the woodland camo uniforms and paint schemes for the desert camo. Time to repaint all the equipment to move into NK.
Come on, NBC, where's the part where you blame it on Bush? Don't stop now - it's the reason that you're the least trusted news network in America!!! (oops, tied for least trusted - with THE COMEDY CHANNEL. EL OH EL!)
Being dependent on computers will cause the ruin of civilization and only an idiot would think otherwise. Cyber security is the most important thing to the survival of these United States.
Yommi Mitaru
Better question. Are you on drugs? If so, might I suggest you choose a different dealer next time? What you posted made no sense at all.
I think China was involved in it also.
Couldn't have been North Korea. Their laptop was busy at the time.
No, it was the CIA hackers.
I would think the programming knowledge originated in China through non-belligerent auspices, then those cantankerous buggers from the North subsequently devised the electronic blitzkrieg. It is the quintessential thorn in our trade relationship. The things we are good at (Bombs, subterfuge, nation manipulation) are not as exportable to nations that we import from.
Would China rub it in their face with messages? I think they would sit back infiltrate, the thing is to stay undetected until your attack. I can't imagine Chinas big attack on S. Korea was Graffiti and a DDOS. But we will see it did happen during the week so it could be.
China would not have tried to hack South Korean banks and broadcasters. Primarily Chinese government hackers go after data and information that they can use in the military or commercial interests. Non-governmental Chinese hackers are indistinguishable from hackers anywhere else and typically go after revenge targets of opportunity.
This looks like North Korean work. The North Koreans are pissed about the joint South Korean/US/Japanese miulitary maneuvers which have focused this year on the DMZ area. The timing there is distinctive. And with the emphasis lately on Chinese hackers, the North Koreans would have some plausible deniability. And North Koreans do not have open IP addresses, so we cannot trace attacks back to a known server location.
North Korea is known to have a unit of military hackers, just like China. They are thought to be pretty good, but I doubt that much more than that is known about them. North Korea is one of the most "intelligence dark" countries in the world.
Come on, NBC, where's the part where you blame it on Bush? Don't stop now - it's the reason that you're the least trusted news network in America!!! (oops, tied for least trusted - with THE COMEDY CHANNEL. EL OH EL!)
The "Whois Team" is an interesting name for a group since it's a bit geeky in its origin, so I'm guessing it's just some kids in Europe or the US having some fun.
@reno 911
I'll give you a 2 part answer.
First, you can take a look at any of the 2,998 comments I've posted in the last 5 years and answer that question.
Secondly, I am quick to point out an idiot and his comments as you are intimately aware of.
Good job President Bush... Nothing has changed here, just as you said. Although this took place 11 years ago, it could have been written / spoken yesterday...
I wish someone would just go in and get that childish leader and whip his butt and take him to jail for crimes against his people, Then I bet his people would thank us and get along with every one and have a good time.
@reno 911
And you've got nothing but bull@!$%# rhetoric someone has convinced you was true. If you'd bothered to do your own fact checking, you would have discovered that Obama never once voted 'present' as a US Senator.
It's not an insult to point out when someone is acting like an idiot. It's simply stating the obvious.
Thanks Chris for handling that.
I was feeling like I was in a dark alley with Yommi creeping up on me.
I can now get some sleep.......
News and info, thats great but a note to the editor. If you're going to introduce a new term for North Korea in the middle of the article please refrence what it means. "The biggest attack by Pyongyang was a 10-day denial of service attack" there is no previous reference to Pyongyang in the artice to explain what it is.
Capital of North Korea - I think the editor just took it for granted that most people knew that.
Note to editor: Please clarify geographical locations in the future. Not everyone knows the capitals of the world - case in point news agency reports Buenos Aires (the capital of Argentina) to be located somewhere in Colombia which is a country way north of Argentina.
Just looked up the mistake and it's even worse then putting the capital in the wrong place, they actually put the whole country inside Colombia! Do newspapers, or any media for that matter, have editors any more? Yikes!
I think they were just saying there was an attack of this nature from NK back in 2011, but nothing since has happened. Something like a note of interest not pointing a finger.
I found a great tool when I come across things in news stories I am not familiar with. Here I put in the term you weren't familiar with look what it found.
http://www.google.com/#q=pyongyang&hl=en&biw=1920&bih=955&fp=1&bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&cad=b
Murica!!! Don't know the capitals of other peoples countries but amazed when they don't know yours.
Since when did news articles give any facts. Thats not what they are suposed to do. They are just suposed to give you half the story to make whatever it is they are writing about more interesting. Then they make up a catchy title that isnt even really true. Like there's gold under the ocean! (But its not enuf to bother getting.) Well there's gold in my backyard.
Its kind of funny when they do that but its really sad!
Try to keep up. Stories about NK and references to its capitol have been in the news daily. Another low information voter that has to have everything spoon fed to him. No wonder we are going down the tubes.
@KingK,
I agree. I understand that the world is large and complex, but people should at least put forth some effort to understand the activities in the current hotsport --- North Korea, Iran, and Syria. The "low information voter(s)" not only have to have everything spoon fed to them, they are a perfect sponge to soak up lies, fiction, and wrong-headed opinions along with honest pablum. It's one reason you see so many ill-informed and poorly educated people posting on here.
If you think NSA or the CIA for that matter can't trace this hack attack back to it's source even on a closed system like North Korea's, think again. We've got some of the best hackers in the world. If they want to get into a system they will.
They just don't admit how far ahead of other countries they are in their ability to do this.
@Douglas Moore,
"there is no previous reference to Pyongyang in the artice to explain what it is."
Thats to funny. I hope that you are joking.............Right?
Ummm Doug you are scaring me as even my 12 and 13 year old little brothers know what and where Pyongyang is and I doubt it's because we are half Chinese. Do you know where Beijing is? What about Seoul? Tokyo? Islamabad or Kabul? Washington D.C. maybe? -lolz My brothers know where all of the above are and can tell you about the country that they are in. You look a little older than 12 or 13 so I would think that you might be better educated than this. Was Sally Struthers your Principal?
Regards,
Brandon The Progressive Liberal
@KingK & Chris-749391,
Very well said.
Just remember, to pass 6th grade (at least when I was in school), one had to correctly identify all 50 states and their capitals. Most "citizens" can barely name their own state's capital. Should we be surprised they can't identify the capital of another country? The surprising item of note I found was the reference to another article which incorrectly placed Buenos Aires/Argentina inside of a completely different country- where are the fact-checkers??
Check twice, publish once.
Why do people constantly have to put other people down here?? Nobody can treat each other with a little bit of civility anymore, it's disgusting.
Because everyone here is a f#cking idiot!!! That's why!!! LOL...had to do it...
This is another instance where people who have been given warnings have been ignoring them. As one of the most wired countries, we are particularly vulnerable. However, the internet being what it is, security can only be obtained by cooperation by various groups of users. Business has been slow to come on board, with the Chamber of Commerce citing costs. To me, its a pay now or pay later scenario.
Well anything you do on a computer is risky and will have some way of being hacked. Theres people who work for companies that know how to do stuff. The banks should spend theyre own money if they want more security for peoples money. And it should be theyre fault if someone hacks them and steals peoples money cause they are the ones that put it on a computer to make it easier for them so they can save money.
Sorry, Cap'nJim; we don't even make the top ten list of "wired countries".
We rank 26th in a global study of internet speeds- but South Korea tops it.
(see: http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/9/3230626/akamai-global-internet-speed )
In all fairness, we rose from the 26th spot on the chart in 2011 to the 12th spot in 2012- an imprtessive improvement- but we should have been leading for the last decade.
We are also far more vulnerable as a nation than South Korea, because so much of our infrastructure is antiquated- and because so many of the under-regulated companies running that infrastructure are so stuck in the short term profit model that the expense of solid defenses is regarded as mere frippery.
Rather than the three skulls posted to some sites by these North Korean wannabees, they should have posted three muzzled dog's heads- because this "attack" was all bark and no bite.
Nothing crucial was affected- only a couple of banks and three broadcasters, all of whom were probably too stupid or too cheap to hire good IT's and install good firewalls got nailed- and they were still back up in hours.
Nothing reached their infrastructure, their military, or their government.
These hacks had all the impact of some sophomoric student prank, not an effective attack- and heads will roll if this embarrassing little goat dance was Pyongyang's best shot.
Hey, let's put everything in the Cloud!! That way anyone can steal it!! Line up ladies and gentlemen, if you don't put your information in the cloud the people that hold your data are....
Op, op op op op, oppan Pyongyang style.
While North Korean involvement might seem likely, there is presently not a shred of evidence to support the contention.
And there's certainly no finger pointing in South Korea towards China at this stage.
Hold on to your hats, findings from the investigators should not be long in coming.
Interesting that news of B52s aloft over the RoK was aired on South Korean TV today.
B52 news was aired yesterday, too. I live in S. Korea, and watch several news broadcasts everyday. I think that this was in retaliation for the U.S. and S. Korea's joint exercise, plus the new rules enforced on N. Korea by the int'l community because of the North's firing of the rocket recently. PLUS, it was a probe, as far as how they are doing in taking down the abilities of the South, if/when they decide to come south. We fly big planes in the skies, have subs in S. Korean waters, and they close down banks and newspapers. Tit for tat.
All conjecture at this point hikeinmts.
Let's not go off half-cocked now.
China, Dude, Seriously, this is bad for business. Take care of this chubby little @!$%# already.
You are all standing around scratching your azzes trying to figure out a diplomatic way out of this...sounds to feminist to me (too many woman in men's affairs). In the old days you shoot, then ask questions. All this pussyfooting around will cost you in preparations of things to come. Pre Maintenance is always the best policy. If the North wants to run his mouth to the world, punch him in it.
Ask former Brit PM Margaret Thatcher how pussyfooting she was when she invaded the Faulklands. Ask current German PM Merkel how pussyfooting she would be responding to a threat on German borders. Lose, Lose, Lose with your naïve outlook on women in authority positions.
Yes, a MAN would not tolerate such shinanigans - just look at the firm stand of Neville Chamberlain against the rise of Hitler!
When the problem is a bomb, shooting it is rarely the best solution.
Sometimes bombs explode even when the bomb squad gets a shot at it- but that's how you first attempt to deal with a bomb.
In politics, we call the bomb squad "diplomacy".
If the bomb squad sees no safe path forwards, you evacuate as many people as possible- and then you blow it up where it is- and you try to minimize the damage by doing things like controlling the direction of the blast with sand bags and so on.
I have no doubt that the hypertrophied chipmunk running North Korea is going to meet a sudden and inglorious end if he keeps stepping over the line.
The only support China will give North Korea is making a few million wheel chairs for the severely injured Army. These North Korea Army
leadersAKA peed-upons are living in 1953, don't they know? What a disgrace in the eyes of the World, their is no leadership only a little boy with a wet diaper, telling the older folks...they cant do this...they cant do this...The South shall rise again, they did not say what South.The North Koreans have been gettiing propoganda, etc...for over 60 years..they believe whatever their leaders tell them.
The more technological we are the more vulnerable we are. We want to share information instantly and access it remotely. In doing so we leave it available for someone to steal.
South Korea needs to standup for themselves and end this North Korean nonsense once and for all.
Yeah. Every time we get hacked we should go bomb whatever country the hack came from. Then everyone would like us.
We just need to stay in our lane!
UNTIL we KNOW who is behind this attack, it is wise to be open-minded, but wait for the investigation to be completed.
What must be done, on a global level, is to establish a SAFER internet. The future wars will be made via internet/satellite attacks.
You forgot about drones.
Yes, untill the South Koreans KNOW that this was a North project, they must remain open-minded. Banks and broadcasters - could be a group of students just trying to see what they can do.- and maybe make a little money. The odds are good that it IS N.K., but there is also a reasonable chance from what little WE know, that it isn't.
Both the U.S. and North Korea have untrustworthy, reviled idiots at the helm. What could possibly go wrong?
Romney lost - move on with life.
This is just the start of things to come. War is coming and the world will be in this one. You can be sure of that.
Start of things to come? Really? Two minutes from now it will be the start of things to come. Remember in the early sixties, with atomic bomb drills that had school kids hiding under desks? I know this time it's real, blah, blah, blah. Are you the same dude that was worried about Halley's comet in the middle ages.
War is COMING?????? What is Afghanistan? Iraq, Syria, various other places!? War is HERE, NOW! Have you been to a veteran's hospital? a military cemetary? How did they get injured? How did they die? Just what type of violence does it have to be for YOU to consider it war?
Actually Debbie i served in Wars in the old sand box (Middle East) . I served with the United States Navy Special Forces. Yes I'm a vet Navy Proud Always And Forever.
I think North Korea is pissed that they can't watch any Harlem Shake videos so they lashed out at the closest thing around them.
Make no mistake about it folks......Dennis Rodman is behind this..:-)
Couldn't we do this here, and shut down Rush, Glenn, Sean, Fox News, etc....
Or should we just wait until after we win the election next year and outlaw them that way.
More libtard stupidity. Crush free speech is the first thing that comes to mind when you are a libtard. Best to have the masses fed their daily dose of MSNBC propaganda to keep them all in line, right libtard?
Put Fox on all Stations only one that try to tell the truth.Kick PBS off air along with the others MSNBC tell what they want you to hear not the truth
OldTimeIDIOT go back to the mailbox and collect ur check, then smoke more pot and have a few more babies!
"War, war, bloody war." Vyvyan, The Young Ones, Anarchist.
I don't know what propaganda i'm sposed to believe nowadays. If you look at satellite photos of NK, it appears that there isn't any power in that country ( no lights on), yet they can run centrifuges to refine uranium, and launch cyber attacks?
Well its the way they are suposed to live. Everybody is suposed to go to bed early so they get good grades in school and work harder. Thats why they shut off the electric at night. And you know they still have electric cause they keep the lights on all the statues.
Its funny how everybody thinks its bad but that means they make no light polution. Isnt that good?
Actually, it's called priorities. First refining the uranium then food. Why give your people luxuries such as food when there's war to be made? I think this is the great leader's way of distracting his people - if the war rhetoric is loud enough, they can't hear their stomachs rumbling.
I've seen plenty of NK's propaganda videos in the news lately, all of which makes it hard to believe they have the technical skills to hack something as secure as a bank. It's pretty telling when they can't even make a YouTube video better than a 1st grader in the US could. It's likely one of three scenarios:
1. China is directly involved
2. Some random cyber hacker in the world wanting to get notoriety by hitting a hot button region
3. The US/SK are stoking their own propaganda machines by claiming there was a hack (and there really wasn't) and have 'evidence' that it was NK who did it, giving them yet another excuse should the time come to take military action (not that sinking a ship and threatening nuclear war isn't already enough of an excuse).
I just LOVE how some blame the current administration for problems that started decades ago. Long before many of those fools were even born.
Are they not in charge now. We can blame them when ? 100 years from now ?
It's a trap!!
North Korea will keep pushing until something happens - should have been slapped when they hijacked the Pueblo, should have been hit when they sank the South Korean vessel two years ago. should have, should have....When you have a cancer, the sooner it is cut out, the less cutting and damage you have to do to the whole body. Keep delaying, it spreads - when will the civilized world act, when the North Koreans launch a nuke attack? When they sell nukes to Al Quaida who then smuggles them into the US? When North Korea looses germ or chemical attack on South Korea?
Best treatment would be a good hard hit, but not on Pyongyang - say, take out one of their ships, clearly and cleanly - let them know that two can play the hitting game, and that we and SK have much bigger fists. Hit some military target - a ship or the first time they shoot shells across the DMZ, hit and obliterate the site that fired - get their attention that misbehavior will be punished. Even fat boy could understand that, and could understand that the next shot might be aimed at him.