South Korean Newspapers hit by major cyber attack

[ISNJH]

Only a week after the North threatened to take action and punish the newspapers in South Korea one of the listed newspapers on the list of targets to be struck has suffered a major cyber attack!

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/tech...611-205cn.html

A conservative South Korean newspaper says it has been the victim of a major cyber attack, less than a week after North Korea threatened the paper and other Seoul media over their reports.
Police are investigating Pyongyang's possible involvement in the hacking of the internet news site and database server at the JoongAng Ilbo and sister paper the Korea JoongAng Daily, the Daily reported.
The English-language Daily said both papers lost the databases for articles and photos. The editing system that moves copy was also destroyed, disrupting production, by the cyber attack on Saturday evening.

It also seems the attackers left a message saying more media sites will be attacked on 19th and the 29th

[HGRazorR]

Not surprising. North Korea has at least 2 known battalions dedicated to cyber-warfare.

[ISNJH]

It should be noted that the next listed attack on South Korean Media site will take place on the same time that the Iran nuke talks start around June 18th or June 19th

[ISNJH]

If the next major cyber attack is larger scale and has more punch its possible that it will create a situation that will distract world attention from the nuke talks.

[sepheronx]

If the next major cyber attack is larger scale and has more punch its possible that it will create a situation that will distract world attention from the nuke talks.

I think Nuclear talks on a potential nuclear power will be more important than some SK newspaper organizations getting hacked.

[ISNJH]

That may be but the South has already said it would not tolerate at all any more provocations or attacks from the North and would respond firmly to any more provocations linked back to the North. So lets say the police link the cyber attack back to North Korea and the North has already said its going to attack again on the 19th and 29th its going to put the Blue House into a dilemma esp if the North on the 19th carries out the threat and starts coordinated attacks on the South media and there is not much the South can do to stop it....

[sepheronx]

That may be but the South has already said it would not tolerate at all any more provocations or attacks from the North and would respond firmly to any more provocations linked back to the North. So lets say the police link the cyber attack back to North Korea and the North has already said its going to attack again on the 19th and 29th its going to put the Blue House into a dilemma esp if the North on the 19th carries out the threat and starts coordinated attacks on the South media and there is not much the South can do to stop it....

And they are going to do what exactly? Bitch and moan more? Obviously South Korea responded in a matter that North Korea did when North Korea shelled Yeonpyeong. What is South going to do? drop more leaflets and hack one of North Korea's newspaper sites? If they respond agressively, that is probably bad news for South Korea, as that would be deemed far too extreme.

[ISNJH]

http://koreajoongangdaily.joinsmsn.c...home|newslist1

The cyberattack took place at around 6:30 p.m. Saturday, and the connection to the site www.joongang.co.kr was cut off.
A photo of a white cat and the statement “Hacked by IsOne” was posted instead. Some unknown code in green-colored fonts was also posted on the site with a message insinuating that additional media sites will be hacked on two days, the 19th and the 29th. It wasn’t clear which month was being referred to.
Immediately after the hacking, the JoongAng Ilbo redirected the site to another news site of the company, joongang.joinsmsn.com, and continued reporting of the news.
Experts say such a massive cyberattack on a media Web site is unprecedented.

“There have been some hacking groups overseas that changed the Web site screen of certain media to show off their hacking ability, but there hasn’t been an instance where the entire production network and servers shut down,” said Yoon Kwang-taek, director of Symantec, a software security firm.

No but if the South does anything its likely the North will use that as the reason for why they conduct their next nuclear test soon.

[ISNJH]

It seems the South Korean military launched an unscheduled readiness drill Monday morning due to a "series of peculiar activities" from the North.