South Korea had its Air Force website hacked — While the investigations are underway some consider North Korea as the culprit!
The official website of South Korean Air Force (airforce.mil.kr) was shut down for two weeks after a massive cyber attack hit its server.
On 12th May 2016, the air force website was found infected with a malicious code forcing the authorities to shut down the site from public view while running a temporary site for public information. The same day the military were informed that some suspicious emails were sent to local defence contractors by a supposed Defence Acquisition Program Administration official. It is quite possible that the emails either contained a malware or it was simply a phishing scam stealing the login credentials of local defence contractors.
Though the officials are blaming North Korea there hasn’t been anything solid to prove this yet as investigations are still underway. However, based on previous hacking saga between both neighbours the North Korean government is a usual suspect for the South.
The air force is working with cyber warfare command to dig deeper into the reason behind the hack. The authorities will also look into possibilities of a data breach or if there has been any data leaked online.
“Authorities are analyzing the type of the malignant code to find out who planted it in the program and why,” another official said, adding the hacking could have been carried out by North Koreans, reports Korea Times.
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South Korea is not new to such cyber attacks. Previously, South Korea blamed North Korea for hacking its nuclear power plant and demanding ransom against sensitive data leak. That’s not all, the Subway system at the heart of Seoul was hacked in 2014 and fingers were pointed out at the North Koreans.
The government of South Korea is also taking measures to keep its cyber infrastructure secure from government-backed spies and hackers eager to steal confidential information.
At the time of publishing this article, the air force website was restored and available online for the public.
