Posts tagged South Korea
North Korean malware hit thousands of phones, says Seoul
Oct 30th
Malicious software disguised as a computer game could have infected around 20,000 smartphones in South Korea, according to South Korean media reports quoting the country’s spy agency.
The games were offered through South Korean sites between May 19 and September 16 this year, the National Intelligence Service said in a report to parliament.
The apps have since been removed and the actual number of phones infected is unclear.
While phones were infected, the software doesn’t appear to have caused any damage but has left the phones vulnerable to eavesdropping and remote video taping, the reports said.
North Korea has often been blamed for cyber attacks on South Korean companies and More >
Ulchi Freedom Guardian means lots of computers
Aug 22nd
As a computer-based war-game, the Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise that begins this week in South Korea requires lots and lots of computers.
In pictures released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Defense, some of those computers and the complexity of the set-up can be seen. The images and a video show the inside of the Joint Operations Center for the exercise. It was built by the U.S. I Corps and Third Army of South Korea.
Lt. Gen. Stephen Lanza, I Corps Commanding General, is briefed by his staff in the I Corps joint operations center in Camp Yongin, South Korea, during a More >
North again denies involvement with drones
May 12th
North Korea strongly denied again on Sunday having anything to do with unmanned aircraft discovered crashed on the South Korean side of the inter-Korean border.
Last week, the South Korean government said it had concluded an investigation into the incident and concluded the three drones were launched from North Korea.
Among its evidence, Seoul said the onboard computer contained a program to fly from North Korea over the south and then back again.
North Korea’s National Defence Commission, through an article sent on the official Korean Central News Agency, called the investigation a “farce” and said it had been implicated to “do harm More >
IJuche app banned in South Korea
Jan 18th
A recently-launched iPhone app that delivers articles from the Korean Central News Agency to iPhones and iPads has been banned in South Korea.
The app, iJuche, was developed and published in late 2013 and was highlighted on NorthKoreaTech earlier this week. That publicity was apparently enough to get it blocked.
“I just got a call from a person at Apple informing me that iJuche has been found to be in violation of South Korea’s “National Security Law” and has been removed from the South Korean App Store,” said Peter Curtis, the developer of the app.
Users in South Korea that have already downloaded a More >
Report: South Korean arrested for aiding North’s spy bureau
Dec 22nd
A South Korean businessman has been arrested by local authorities on suspicion of passing classified information and video and audio system technology to North Korea, Yonhap reported on Saturday.
The report said the suspect, identified only as a 54-year-old man called “Kang,” worked with agents of North Korea’s Reconnaissance General Bureau to pass the information. He regularly traveled to China and made contact with the agents directly and through email.
Few other pieces of information were available.
The case could be interesting because the Reconnaissance General Bureau is the Korean People’s Army unit responsible for spying activities, including infiltration of South Korea and electronic More >
South Korea’s Internet only “partly free,” says Freedom House
Oct 12th
Despite living in one of the most wired societies in the world, South Korean Internet users enjoy a “partly free” Internet due to government censorship of content, according to the results of a global survey on Internet freedom.
Censorship of content, which includes many websites that carry North Korean content, has shot up in recent years.
The government’s own figures show 25,706 items were blocked in the first six months of 2013, compared to 39,296 sites in all of 2012. Five years ago in 2008, just 4,731 sites were blocked.
The censorship led Freedom House to score the country 32 points in its annual More >
South Korea eyes high-tech blimps at the border
Oct 1st
A blimp lifts off from its launch pad at Forward Operating Base Shank, Logar province, Afghanistan, on July 31. (File Photo: US Army / Spc. Theodore Schmidt)
South Korean defense officials plan to soon launch a high-tech blimp just south of the disputed maritime border with North Korea in November to get a better look into the neighboring country, according to a report in Stars and Stripes.
The airship will hover over the island group that includes Yeonpyong, which is the island that was shelled by North Korean forces in 2010 resulting in the deaths of four South Koreans.
The newspaper quoted a spokesman for More >
DPRK protests results of hacking probe
Apr 13th
The DPRK is loudly protesting the preliminary results of a South Korean investigation that found it was behind widespread computer disruption that hit several TV stations and banks on March 20. [Updated, see below.]
The computer attacks wiped clean the hard disk drives of around 48,000 personal computers and servers inside broadcasters KBS, MBC and YTN, and the Shinhan, Nonghyup and Jeju Banks.
In an almost 2,000 word response carried on the state-run KCNA newswire, the main results of the investigation were picked through and discounted. The article, which came a day after Seoul disclosed its findings, was attributed to a spokesman for the General Staff of More >
More information on the South Korean cyber attack
Mar 24th
The mysterious cyber attack that hit an estimated 32,000 computers at South Korean TV stations and banks last week is looking more interesting, based on the latest analysis from computer security companies.
The first immediate analysis concluded that the malicious software was pretty unsophisticated, in part because it was based on a piece of malware that has been known for a year or so and because the commands in the code were not hidden.
That still seems to be true, but more data about the malware is coming out as researchers spend more time with it.
Fortinet on Friday said there were two different More >
Malware that hit South Korea wasn’t so sophisticated
Mar 21st
A cyber attack on three of South Korea’s major broadcasters and several of its major banks appears to have been caused by a relatively unsophisticated piece of software, security researchers said Wednesday. [Story updated, see below]
The attacks, which began at around 2pm local time on Wednesday (5:00 UTC) left desktop and laptop computers unable to start at KBS, MBC and YTN and took the auto-teller machines at Shinhan Bank and Nonghyup Bank offline. It didn’t affect the ability of the TV stations to put out programming.
The root of the attack was a malicious piece of software identified by computer security company Sophos More >
