Official: NKorea believed behind cyber attacks

[Boomerang Diddle]

Source: AP

SEOUL, South Korea – South Korean intelligence officials believe North Korea or pro-Pyongyang forces in South Korea committed cyber attacks that paralyzed major South Korean and U.S. Web sites, a lawmaker's aide said Wednesday.

The sites of 11 South Korean organizations including the presidential Blue House and the Defense Ministry went down or had access problems since late Tuesday, according to the state-run Korea Information Security Agency. Agency spokeswoman Ahn Jeong-eun said 11 U.S. sites suffered similar problems.

On Wednesday, the National Intelligence Service told a group of South Korean lawmakers it believes that North Korea or North Korean sympathizers in the South "were behind" the attacks, according to an aide to one of the lawmakers briefed on the information.

The aide spoke on condition of anonymity citing the sensitivity of the information. He refused to allow the name of the lawmaker he works for to be published.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090708/ap_on_re_as/as_skorea_cyber_attack

[IDemo]

1. Hackers knock out government Web sites

Source: msnbc.com

Officials eye potential N. Korea link after 'well-organized' July 4 assault

WASHINGTON - A widespread and unusually resilient computer attack that began July 4 knocked out the Web sites of several government agencies, including some that are responsible for fighting cyber crime.

Suspected cyber assaults also paralyzed Web sites of major South Korean government agencies, banks and Internet sites in a barrage that appeared linked to the attacks in the U.S., South Korean officials said Wednesday.

The Treasury Department, Secret Service, Federal Trade Commission and Transportation Department Web sites were all down at varying points over the holiday weekend and into this week, according to officials inside and outside the government. Some of the sites were still experiencing problems Tuesday evening.

U.S. officials refused to publicly discuss details of the cyber attack. But Amy Kudwa, spokeswoman for the Homeland Security Department, said the agency's U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team issued a notice to federal departments and other partner organizations about the problems and "advised them of steps to take to help mitigate against such attacks."

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31789294/ns/technology_and_science-security/

[shadowknows69]

2. I didn't do it. I still have trouble tweaking my internet options for my browser.

[L0oniX]

3. Lamers

[TheWatcher]

4. Ah, the "potential North Korea Link"

:eyes:

How convenient.

There are some days I wish The Elite would just make their fucking move and quit all this childish posturing.

They need another Major War, and they will do anything to get it. If it isn't North Korea, it will be Iran. Or Maybe Pakistan. Or maybe further escalation in Afghanistan to bridge to Syria.

Or maybe they'll just declare war on everything and everybody.

Any Major War will do.

Preferably World War III.

The Sheeple Public will just drool and cheer it on anyway, and any questioning of how it started or any suspicions will just be taken care of by the bought and paid for Media, so said Drooling Sheeple can continue to flagellate and circle jerk in ignorance and fantasy and say it doesn't exist.

Just fucking get it over with already.

We can't be bothered to stop you anyway.

More Cable, More Beer, More Fast Food, More Football, More Reality TV, More Distractions, More Celebrity Funerals.....

"It's So Lonely At The Top Of Olympus"

[Odin2005]

6. Take off that tinfoil hat.

:eyes:

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[ohio2007]

18. lighten up Nero.Posting that pic, you should have seen it comming

You say there is no way the dear leader could have played a part ?

oh YEAH

[TheWatcher]

20. There is no evidence that he did.

Just More "terra, terra, terra" BS.

I'm sorry, usually I'm with you, but I am sick of being spoon fed this nonsense and expected to buy it at face value. And sick of the Public falling for it every time, wanting to be "protected" from the "Bogeyman Of The Month."

[jhain]

5. This is damn frightening.

Will we ever hear any more specifics?

[Coventina]

7. White House among targets of sweeping cyber attack

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iaaWwzg--SOmIz9Qjdju4UYFB5GgD99AB1L00

WASHINGTON (AP) — The powerful attack that overwhelmed computers at U.S. and South Korean government agencies for days was even broader than realized, also targeting the White House, the Pentagon and the New York Stock Exchange.

An early analysis of the malicious software used in the attack found its targets also included the National Security Agency, Homeland Security Department, State Department, the Nasdaq stock market and The Washington Post. Many of the organizations appeared to successfully blunt the sustained attacks.

The Associated Press obtained the target list from security experts analyzing the attack. It was not immediately clear who might be responsible or what their motives were.

The attack was remarkably successful. Some of the affected government Web sites — such as the Treasury Department, Federal Trade Commission and Secret Service — were still reporting problems days after it started during the July 4 holiday.

[gauguin57]

9. If anyone needs me, I'll be under my bed.

:scared:

[TheWatcher]

10. Stop being afraid of fake, staged events.

And being fearful of the Boogeyman Of The Month.

[Akoto]

11. White House among targets of sweeping cyber attack

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The powerful attack that overwhelmed computers at U.S. and South Korean government agencies for days was even broader than initially realized, also targeting the White House, the Pentagon and the New York Stock Exchange.

Other targets of the attack included the National Security Agency, Homeland Security Department, State Department, the Nasdaq stock market and The Washington Post, according to an early analysis of the malicious software used in the attacks. Many of the organizations appeared to successfully blunt the sustained computer assaults.

The Associated Press obtained the target list from security experts analyzing the attacks. It was not immediately clear who might be responsible or what their motives were. South Korean intelligence officials believe the attacks were carried out by North Korea or pro-Pyongyang forces.

The attack was remarkably successful in limiting public access to victim Web sites, but internal e-mail systems are typically unaffected in such attacks. Some government Web sites - such as the Treasury Department, Federal Trade Commission and Secret Service - were still reporting problems days after the attack started during the July 4 holiday. South Korean Internet sites began experiencing problems Tuesday.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_US_CYBER_ATTACK?SITE=CTDAN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[redqueen]

12. Hm.

Would / should the US consider retaliatory cyber strikes, in cases like this?

[Deja Q]

13. Send them free copies of Windows 7 and tell all the hackers where the holes are...

...though it wouldn't take much effort if the hackers went in blind either... :evilgrin:

[lumberjack_jeff]

14. Since half of North Korea's computers are down at any given time...

... it should be an easy matter to launch a DoS attack on the other two. Or simply put a couple of peanut butter sandwiches in their floppy drives.

[RoccoR5955]

15. You don't want to escalate this.

It could lead to a real, flesh and blood, shooting war!
Though it may be easy to pinpoint the IP address of where the attacks come from, IP addresses are easy to spoof, and thus, you cannot tell who the attacker is for certain.

[redqueen]

16. Apparently this strike caused mostly inconvenience.

It may not always be the case. What if their little cyber attack actually caused serious problems? What then?

Just wondering out loud...

[RoccoR5955]

19. If their attacks caused serious problems, then the network security people,

not the people who made the attack, should be hauled over the carpet. Along with Microsoft. After all, if Windoze wouldn't be so vulnerable, there wouldn't be so many zombie computers out there, to perform a DDOS attack.

People have to learn that Linux, the PEOPLE'S operating system, is open source, and free. It is written by committee, and the source code is distributed with the O/S. By being so open, it is easier to find and plug weak points in it. This is not true with a proprietary O/S, like Windoze.

[ohio2007]

17. Didn't Obama appoint a "CYBER Csar" last month ?

hmmmmm


guess he was at one of the embassy picnics on the 4rth

[TheWatcher]

21. More "Anonymous Officials" telling us to be skeered of "The Bogeyman"

The More Things Change.....

[junior college]

22. booga booga!

[Hugabear]

23. Consider the source

This is coming from SOUTH KOREAN INTELLIGENCE. Hardly an objective source, I would say.

[ThoughtCriminal]

24. Questionable evidience

"anonymous South Korean intelligence officials blaming the attacks on North Korea"

It could have originated with N. Korea, or it could have been anybody. It is not surprising that S. Korean Intelligence blames N. Korea since they were under attack.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/07/mydoom/

<snip>
In the recent attack, experts say the malware used no sophisticated techniques to evade detection by anti-virus software and doesn’t appear to have been written by someone experienced in coding malware. The author’s use of a pre-written worm to deliver the code also suggests the attacker probably wasn’t thinking of a long-term attack.

“The fact that it’s using older threats isn’t a terribly stealthy attack,” says Dean Turner, director of Symantec’s Global Intelligence Network. “And the fact that it’s re-using code could indicate that somebody put it together in a hurry or that, as with most DDoS attacks, their purpose is mostly nuisance. It didn’t require a degree in rocket science to pull that stuff together.”
.
.
.
Joe Stewart, director of malware research at SecureWorks says the code he examined, which was written in Visual C++, was compiled on July 3, two days before the first attacks. Although Stewart says analysis of the attack is still in its early stages, he concurs that the attacker’s motivation was fairly routine.

“Usually you see a DDoS attack against one or two sites and it will be for one of two reasons — they have some beef with those sites or they’re trying to extort money from those sites,” he says. “To just attack a wide array of government sites like this, especially high-profile, just suggests that maybe the entire point is just to get attention to make some headlines rather than to actually do any kind of damage.”

[Nihil]

25. Thank you!

> “To just attack a wide array of government sites like this, especially
> high-profile, just suggests that maybe the entire point is just to get
> attention to make some headlines rather than to actually do any kind of
> damage.”

And by Jove, it worked!

Isn't it good to see the sheep all stampede in the direction intended?
:banghead: