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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Military Admits Nork Hacker Attack |
| 2009-11-06 |
| The North Korean military hacked into the South Korean Army command in March and a password for the National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER) website leaked out, Lt. Gen. Kim Jong-tae, commander of the Defense Security Commend (DSC), admitted to a parliamentary audit on Tuesday. That confirms a report last month in the Monthly Chosun. Lawmakers quoted Kim as saying the target of the hackers was the computer of the director of the chemicals division, and his ID and password were leaked through a hacking program when he logged on to the alumni website of the Korea Military Academy. Kim bluntly stated that the military security system "is not safe" from attacks by North Korean hackers at the moment, lawmakers said. The Monthly Chosun reported that North Korean hackers stole confidential information from the Chemical Accident Response Information System (CARIS) set up by NIER using a password obtained from hacking South Korean Army command. Over 2,000 national secrets were stolen, including the names of around 700 companies or state-run entities that manufacture toxic chemicals. The DSC explained that the hacked computer was connected to an external Internet network, which is strictly separated from the internal military network. This time, the DSC explained, the internal military network was not hacked, but it added, "As North Korea's hacking technology develops, the chances of the internal network being attacked is increasing and better security is needed." There is also a risk that military information might leak through a hacking program on a flash disk used when logging onto the military network, but the current system is capable of detecting and preventing that, the DSC said. |
| Posted by:Steve White |