South Korean subway system hacked, North Korea a possible culprit

The Subway system at the heart of Seoul, South Korea was hacked in 2014 and a local lawmaker claims that the culprit was North Korea.

Ha Tae-keung, a lawmaker from the Saenuri Party revealed that the breach took place between March and August last year in which hackers were able to access 213 computers at Seoul Metro. Out of which, 58 PCs were under the control of hackers due to a malicious code.

Ha Tae-keung was quoting the report from South Korea‘s National Intelligence Service which concluded that the hackers also stole 12 work related documents. However, most were HR and internal planning related and not of a sensitive nature. 

Seoul Metro also stressed that the hacking did not affect subway safety as the central control system is run separately in an enclosed network server. 

The NIS also stated that it could not find the source of the cyber attack due to lack of logs. 

In order to secure their servers, South Korea set about formatting all its computers connected with the metro system, according to CNN.

This is not the first time South Korea has had its high-profile infrastructure hacked. In the past, the country’s nuclear plants were hacked and North Korea was blamed.