Fergie's Tech Blog

S.Korean Army Officers Targeted by N.Korean Spyware

Via Chosun.com.

A North Korean spyware e-mail was reportedly transmitted to the computer of a colonel at a field army command via China in early August. The e-mail contained a typical program designed automatically to steal stored files if the recipient opens it. It has not been confirmed whether military secrets were leaked as a result of the hacking attempt, but their scale could be devastating given that the recipient is in charge of the South Korean military's central nervous system -- Command, Control, Communication, Computer & Information (C4I).

The incident shows that North Korea has enlarged its list of hacking targets to officers at field army commands, in addition to the homepages of Cheong Wa Dae, the Defense Ministry and top military brass to steal South Korean military secrets.

It is also evident that Won Jeong-hwa, who was arrested for posing as a defector while spying for the North, delivered the name cards of 100 South Korean military officers she had collected to a North Korean official. Some officers whose email addresses are on their name cards have suffered hacking attacks. Early this year, a National Security Council official lost files stored in his computer after a hacking attack from China. North Korea has clearly widened the scope of cyber attacks.

posted by Fergie @ 9/02/2008 11:28:00 AM