South Korea Says North Was Behind Cyber Attack on Newspaper

SEOUL – South Korean police on Wednesday said North Korea was behind a cyber-attack that paralysed operations at a major conservative newspaper last year.

Police accused the North of hacking the news website and database of the JoongAng Ilbo and sister English paper the Korea JoongAng Daily last June, saying the ministry of post and telecommunications might have been involved.

Both papers lost data connected with articles and photos after the attack, during which a photo of a white cat and the statement “Hacked by IsOne” was posted on the website homepage.

The police Cyber Terror Response Centre said the IP address of an overseas server used in the hacking operation was identical to that used in previous cyber-attacks by North Korea.

The attack came a week after North Korea had threatened JoongAng and other South Korean media outlets for their coverage of a mass children’s event in Pyongyang which they compared to a Nazi youth rally.

The North’s military listed the coordinates of several news outlets saying its missile units and other forces had already targeted their buildings.

Seoul says Pyongyang has an elite team of hackers.

South Korea accused the North of staging cyber-attacks on websites of South Korean government agencies and financial institutions in July 2009 and March 2011.

Seoul also denounced North Korea for jamming the GPS systems of hundreds of civilian aircraft and ships in South Korea in April and May last year.