North Korea Suspected in US Cyber Attack

By Jason Farago,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 8, 2009 7:55 AM CDT
North Korea Suspected in US Cyber Attack
An official gives a briefing about cyber attacks at the National Police Agency in Seoul, South Korea today.   (AP Photo/Yonhap, Hwang Kwang-mo)

North Korean hackers have been fingered for the July 4 cyberattack that took down the websites of the Treasury, Secret Service, and other US government agencies, reports the AP. Another cyberattack hit sites in South Korea, including the president's website, and intelligence officials there said today that the North was behind both of the unusually lengthy attacks. Some sites were down as long as three days.

An initial investigation in South Korea found that a virus affecting personal computers forced them to visit American and Korean websites over and over, resulting in a so-called "denial of service" attack. "This is not a simple attack by individuals," the county's intelligence service said. "The attack appears to have been elaborately prepared and staged by a certain organization or state." (More South Korea stories.)

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