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North Korea could be behind cyberattack on South Korea's air force

Multiple sources said the South Korean air force website was hacked.

By Elizabeth Shim
A South Korean soldier stands guard at the Dorasan Station in the Civilian Control area near the demilitarized zone in Paju, South Korea. North Korea could have breached a South Korean air force website, local press reported. File Photo by Keizo Mori/UPI
A South Korean soldier stands guard at the Dorasan Station in the Civilian Control area near the demilitarized zone in Paju, South Korea. North Korea could have breached a South Korean air force website, local press reported. File Photo by Keizo Mori/UPI | License Photo

SEOUL, May 25 (UPI) -- South Korea's air force website was hacked, and North Korea could be behind the cyberattack.

The website has been down for 13 days, a Seoul military official said, according to local newspaper Donga Ilbo.

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Multiples sources confirmed that the cyberattack began in early May, the report stated.

The most likely culprit is North Korea's Reconnaissance General Bureau, the branch of Pyongyang's government that has been held responsible for several data breaches into South Korea servers, the official said.

South Korea's air force immediately launched into a recovery mission, but the website is yet to be operational. On May 12, Seoul's defense ministry failed to restore the website and subsequently blocked access.

A temporary webpage with limited uses is currently available online, according to South Korean television network SBS.

The hackers could have used a virus to gain access to military computers, turning individual PCs into "zombies" that could then be used to perform malicious tasks through remote programming and control.

The risk that data on individuals who made reservations for sporting facilities on military sites cannot be ruled out, a military official told press.

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The hackers could have been looking for a "contact" point from where they could access the walled "defense network."

The cyberattack is still under investigation, the unidentified South Korean official said.

North Korea has not stopped breaches of South Korea computer systems.

In mid-May, North Korea targeted South Korea's defense industry with an email hack, a Seoul military source has said.

The emails were made to look like an online survey of suppliers, and were sent from a falsified account, according to the source.

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