Security
Suspected DPRK cyber attacks back in the news
Jan 17th
Cyber attacks on South Korean networks suspected to have originated in North Korea are back in the news.
On Thursday, Yonhap News reported that a computer server handling the Internet connection for the press rooms at South Korea’s presidential transition team had been hacked.
The hack, which was not detailed, was detected during a security check by “intelligence authorities,” said Yonhap. Other computers in the transition office had not been hacked, the report said quoting an unnamed official.
The news comes a day after the National Police Agency blamed North Korea for a 2012 attack on the Joong Ang Ilbo newspaper. The NPA said it came to its More >
Report: DPRK jams South Korean satellite comms
Nov 17th
North Korea earlier this year jammed military communications running through a South Korea satellite, according to a report in the Joong Ang Ilbo.
The newspaper, which quoted an anonymous South Korean military official, said a powerful signal sent from a location near Pyongyang caused interference to military communications on the Koreasat 5 satellite in March this year.
However, as usual with such leaks from the Korean government to the local media, what actually happened remains far from clear.
Koreasat 5 was launched in 2006 and carries a mixed commercial and military payload.
On the commercial side are 24 ku-band transponders operated by Korea Telecom that carry Korean More >
Pyongyang denies GPS jamming
May 19th
North Korea denied on Friday that it played any part in a two and a half week long jamming of Global Positioning System (GPS) signals in the border area between North and South Korea.
The denial was carried in several state media outlets and said allegations that the DPRK was behind the jamming were part of “a new farce and smear campaign.”
The jamming took place between April 28 and May 14 and resulted in several hundred civilian aircraft and ships experiencing disruption to their navigation systems, according to reports. It made GPS signals unavailable or unreliable but didn’t result in any serious accidents. South Korean More >
GPS jamming ends, says report
May 16th
The apparent intentional jamming of Global Positioning System (GPS) signals that has disrupted service near the Korean border has stopped, Yonhap news reported on Tuesday.
The jamming has caused inconvenience to hundreds of commercial aviation flights and international shipping since it began on April 28. The source of the interference isn’t known but South Korean media have quoted government sources as saying it’s been coming from the North Korean city of Kaesong.
The signals ended on Monday, said Yonhap.
The end of the interference came on the same day that South Korean President Lee Myung Bak and Chinese premier Hu Jintao met in More >
DPRK jamming GPS signals, says Seoul
May 3rd
Interference is causing problems with Global Positioning System (GPS) signals around Seoul and the South Korean government says North Korea is to blame.
GPS signals became unreliable on April 30 and more than 250 commercial aircraft has to rely on other navigation methods, according to several local media reports.
A spokesman for the Korea Communications Commission told The New York Times. “We believe that the jamming signals originated in North Korea,” but a different spokesman told AFP that North Korea had been confirmed as the source.
“We’ve confirmed the GPS jamming signals have been stemming from the North,” AFP quoted KCC deputy director Lee Kyung-Woo, More >
Japan ties exported PCs to Internet attacks
Mar 14th
Japanese police suspect a consignment of 1,843 used computers and monitors allegedly exported to North Korea could have been used in a 2009 week-long attack on a handful of South Korean and U.S. websites.
The computers, allegedly exported in violation of Japanese sanctions, were shipped to the Pyongyang Informatics Center (PIC), a unit of the state-run Korea Computer Center (KCC), on June 18, 2009, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported quoting “investigation sources.”
Less than a month later on the July 4 weekend, a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack targeted 27 South Korean and U.S. websites.
DDOS attacks work by harnessing the power and bandwidth More >
More Tokyo raids over DPRK PC exports
Mar 1st
Police in Tokyo conducted follow-up raids this week on the office of a North Korean-linked science association as part of an investigation into illegal PC exports.
The Korean Association of Science and Technology in Japan (在日本朝鮮人科学技術協会, 재일본조선인과학기술협회) was raided on Tuesday, according to local media reports.
Police were investigating a possible link between the group and Lee Soon Gi, the 49-year old president of used PC equipment seller Popura Tec (website, right), said the Jiji news agency.
Lee was arrested earlier this month along with two others on suspicion of exporting PCs to North Korea in violation of Japan’s trade sanctions.
The science association was formed in More >
Pyongyang satellite monitoring station
Feb 12th
In the northern Pyongyang suburb of Hyongjesan there are twelve large satellite dishes on a hillside. The dishes, easily visible in satellite photos, have been there for at least a decade and while their function is unknown, their close proximity to North Korea’s signals intelligence headquarters might be a clue to their purpose.
Some of the dishes have buildings next to them while others are surrounded by trees. Their exact size is difficult to determine, but most appear to be around 16- or 18-meters in diameter. That makes them large enough to receive signals from many satellites in orbit above Asia, but what are More >
Report: Stronger GPS jammer developed
Sep 9th
North Korea has developed a powerful jammer that can disrupt GPS (Global Positioning System) satellite signals over a range of “more than 100 kilometers,” according to a South Korean government report, Yonhap News said Tuesday.
News of the jamming equipment was included in a report submitted to South Korea’s parliamentary committee on defense this week, the news agency said.
The South Korean capital lies about 50 kilometers from the border region so a jammer with such range could disrupt or wipe out GPS signals in Seoul and the surrounding area. The city and region up to the border is littered with military More >
VOK on US hacking
Aug 4th
The Voice of Korea, North Korea’s international radio broadcaster, recently aired a commentary that took aim at several hacking incidents in the U.S., but the true aim of the piece appears to be the U.S. Department of Defense’s recently published Strategy for Operating in Cyberspace.
The U.S. document, a declassified version of which is available online, brings together cyber strategies and thinking throughout the DoD. The classified version also says major cyber attacks can constitute acts of war, according to reports.
The VOK commentary begins with the hack of Fox News’ Twitter stream that saw a message posted that U.S. President Barack More >
