Koreas/US – cyber attacks

New wave of cyber attacks on US and SKorean sites, NKorea suspected

Article published on the 2009-07-09 Latest update 2009-07-09 13:07 TU

The Korea Internet Security Centre in Seoul working to protect from cyber attacks, 8 July 2009
(Photo: Reuters)

A new wave of cyber attacks that slowed down US and South Korean websites this week hit more targets Thursday, amid suspicion that North Korea may be to blame. AhnLab, a South Korean web security firm, had anticipated that the virus would return and hit several domestic sites at 6pm local time Thursday, which it did.

"The third attack was bigger than our office had predicted, affecting some of the sites also hit earlier in the week," an AhnLab official said.

The virus launched what is known as a "distributed denial of service" (DDoS) attack, where thousands of virus-infected computers are hijacked and directed to a particular site, paralysing it with the volume of traffic.

Some South Korean government websites, including the Defence Ministry and the National Intelligence Service, have been affected. In the US, the White House, State Department and Pentagon websites were among those targeted this week.

The attacks came as the South Korean military announced it would set up an information security command next year to manage future threats of cyber warfare from North Korea.