on March 21st, 2013 at 4:24 am
Did the Iranians Assist North Korea with Their Cyberattack?

Considering the similarities between the alleged Iranian cyberattacks on various US banks and businesses I would not be surprised if they assisted the North Koreans on their latest cyberattack on South Korea:

Cyberattacks on three South Korean TV stations and two banks disrupted computer networks and halted ATM services temporarily on Wednesday, sending a tremor through that nation’s heavily Internet-dependent economy and raising questions about whether the attack was carried out by a nation-state or a hacker group.

Fingers were quickly pointed at North Korea as a likely suspect – especially given its protests last week that South Korea and the US were behind a two-day temporary shutdown of its Internet. Longstanding reports suggest that the North is training cadres of elite hackers.

Senior South Korean government officials withheld judgment while the matter is being investigated. But cybersecurity experts said the attacks, which occurred at around 2 p.m. local time, were synchronized and appear to have been the result of malicious software – a crude cyberweapon planted inside the computer networks of the banks and TV stations.

The malicious software was a “wiper” program that deletes computer files en masse – the type of cyberweapon used to attack Saudi Aramco in August 2012, damaging or wrecking 30,000 work stations in the giant oil company’s network.

To plant that kind of cyberweapon in multiple South Korean networks, the attackers had to have been inside the networks for some period. That differentiates these attacks from the attacks now going on against US banks, which flood websites with data and make web services freeze up.

Adding confusion, some South Korean computers were reported to have shown the image of a skull and a graphic claiming the attack was conducted by a group called the “Whois Team.” But that display may say little about who was behind the attack, cybersecurity experts say. More revealing is the apparent goal. [Christian Science Monitor]

You can read the rest at the link, but I would not be surprised if the North Koreans used some of their Chinboista allies in South Korea to launch the attacks in order to better cover their tracks.

[link to rokdrop.com]