Hackers Attacked South Korean Banks

On the 20th of March, computer networks at a number of South Korean banks and TV broadcasters crashed due to a cyber attack, which paralysed ATMs across the country. South Korean authorities reacted quickly and set up a cyber crisis team, but this didn’t help. It turned out that the large scale attack overwhelmed the infrastructure, including Nonghyup Bank, Shinhan Bank, Munhwa Broadcasting Corp., YTN and Korea Broadcasting System.

Nobody has claimed responsibility for the hacker attack thus far, and South Korean officials are still not pointing fingers, but most experts think the attack was launched by North Korea, which always has a reason to attack the neighbour. Security experts admitted that the malware used in the attack wrecked the machines and destroyed their ability to reboot. A number of operators reported they saw skulls on the screens before their computers went down. Apparently, tech support had a bad day, but a number of services were restored in a few hours.
This hacker attack is considered the biggest cyber onslaught against the country in over 2 years. It is clear that simultaneous, coordinated attacks were carried out by an attacker with plenty of resources – for example, a state sponsored group. In the meantime, North Korea is believed to have a cyber warfare unit able to hack networks of the United States and South Korea. However, the level of sophistication used in the attacks is very surprising, taking into account the state of North Korea’s economy and infrastructure. It is easy to recruit hackers in the United States, Europe or Japan, but it isn’t so in a country having virtually no Internet and frequent power outages.
Still, it might be worth the effort. It is known that South Korea operates some of the fastest broadband networks in the world and its economy is heavily dependent on broadband access. In addition, such attack also poses a massive security risk, because multiple facilities can be targeted. Finally, a more serious attack could potentially wreak havoc on the country’s infrastructure.
In contrast, North Korea is almost unhackable – and this is not due to having the best cyber security program in the world or the wisest and greatest supreme leaders, but due to the fact that it has almost no Internet infrastructure at all.

South Korea Was Hacked from China?

The investigators of the tremendous hack which crippled the South Korean banking system have traced it back to… Chinese servers! However, even despite Chinese IP addresses being used in the hack, North Korea still remains the prime suspect.

As you know, IP addresses can be manipulated and the chances are that the intruders could just be hiding behind the Chinese servers. Previously, South Korea has accused its northern neighbour of starting massive cyber attacks, and the industry observers believe that North Korea is the one behind the latest attack, which disabled almost 32,000 machines used by three banks and three media outlets. The country’s authorities think this attack originated from a single organization.

In the meantime, the hack came amid high tensions in the Korean peninsula, thus representing an escalation of North Korean rhetoric. Recently, North Korea carried out its 3rd nuclear test, while making multiple threats against South Korea and US interests in the area. Last week, North Korea claimed it would attack American bases in Okinawa and Guam if provoked. Apparently, it doesn’t take much to provoke the country, so the United States should better watch its step in the region.

In addition, North Korea was eager to tell the world that the country now has its own drones through the state news agency, which claimed that its glorious armed forces carried out a mock drone attack on the South. According to the report, the drones went on to complete the mission and deliver a super-precision attack on enemy targets. At the same time, a missile defence unit shot down a target which mimicked a Tomahawk cruise missile. Of course, these reports can’t be independently confirmed, but US analysts can still find them quite amusing.