North Korea computer hacking unit
North Korea computer hacking unit
North Korea is operating a computer-hacking military unit to collect
secret information on South Korea, a top military official in Seoul
said yesterday.
Speaking in a conference on protection of defense information, Defense
Security Command commander Song Young-keun unveiled the North Korean
military's hacking into computer networks of South Korea's major state
organizations.
"Considering intelligence we gathered, the North is operating a
hacking unit under the direct instruction of Kim Jong-il," Lt. Gen.
Song said in the statement.
"They are stepping up cyber-terror abilities, such as collection of
our information through hacking of our agencies and institutions."
The DSC commander said in May that the North had annually trained
about 100 computer hackers to strengthen its cyber-terror capability
against South Korea.
The South Korean military intelligence unit has set up a counter-cyber
terrorism investigative team to check general computer viruses and
hacking threats.
Quoting unnamed DSC officials, Yonhap News Agency said North Korean
military authorities have provided intensive and rigorous training of
computer-related skills to some college graduates, and they are
assigned to the military unit under the control of the Korean People's
Army, the communist state's military forces.
Their tasks are to get into the computer networks run by South Korean
government agencies and research institutes, and retrieve classified
information from them. One of their assignments is also to attack the
computer systems, Yonhap said.
The communist North is also using about 26 Internet Web sites directly
run by it or other pro-Pyongyang organizations to promote the regime
and other political propaganda.
The DSC also said that through the Web sites, the North sets forth
guidelines for its spy agents operating abroad.
