时事资讯:韩国指责朝鲜发动网络攻击

【英文原文】

Pyongyang blamed as cyber attack hits S Korea

摘要：韩国情报官员昨日指责朝鲜对其实施网络攻击，导致韩国总统府、国防部、其它政府机构、银行、零售商和媒体公司的网站陷入瘫痪。

South Korean intelligence officials yesterday blamed their North Korean neighbours for a cyber attack that paralysed the president's website as well as those of the defence ministry, other state agencies, banks, retailers and media companies.

South Korea is one of the world's most wired nations and the attack highlighted what some see as its vulnerability to cyber attacks from the North and others.

The South's Communications Commission said that the websites of the presidential Blue House, defence ministry and national assembly as well as private companies were inundated by heavy traffic generated by malicious software, beginning on Tuesday.

“The attacks caused massive harmful traffic to specific sites, causing access slowdown and service disruption,” the agency said.

Some government websites were still down late yesterday and internet users were advised to install security patches or update anti-virus programs.

Prosecutors and police were investigating the source of the attacks, but the National Intelligence Service said it believed they originated in North Korea or from its southern supporters. “We have reported [the suspicions] to members of the parliamentary intelligence committee,” said a NIS official.

Experts said North Korea could use cyber attacks as a tool to paralyse the South's telecoms system before military strikes. Tensions have climbed recently, with North Korean missile launches, a nuclear test, abrogation of a sea boundary agreement and repeated threats of war.

“It is very likely that groups hostile to our government engage in cyber warfare,” said Kim Kwang-jo, president of the Korea Institute of Information Security and Cryptology. “The latest cyber attack seems to be aimed at displaying the North's technological prowess.”

North Korea is believed to have expanded its cyber warfare unit to about 100 agents to gather intelligence on South Korea's military and to disturb the South's computer networks. Southern military officials said last month they were detecting 95,000 attempted cyber attacks a day on average and about 11 per cent of them were attempts to obtain military information.