Possible Cyber Attack Against South Korean Banks and TV Stations

B3ryllium writes "At least four broadcasters and two banks in South Korea are reporting massive computer accessibility issues, saying that their networks are 'paralyzed' by what looks like a cyber attack. Additional reports from Twitter suggest that hundreds of computers in the country powered off simultaneously at 2:20am, and reported "Boot device not found" errors. South Korea's military has upgraded its "Information Operation Condition (INFOCOM)" level from Level 4 to Level 3 in response to this situation."

Comments

It's OK: battle.net is still up!

[Anonymous Coward]

South Korea citizens breathed a collective sigh of relief upon learning that battle.net servers were unaffected by the outage.

Additional updates since the initial crash

[bugbeak]

According to additional reports throughout the day, malware was transmitted through patch management servers, affecting hundreds of PCs at the broadcasters and banks. The malware was designed to target the master boot records of the computers, taking them offline, and according to another article, local security experts say that this is an example of an advanced persistent threat.

Re:Additional updates since the initial crash

[tokencode]

So let me understand, NK gains access to patch servers, can upload an infected update/patch to several hundred computers essentially letting them run arbitrary code and the best they could do was it make it so they did boot? It is either the most pathetic attempt at a government-sponsored cyber-attack to date (consistent with Fat Kim III regime's track-record) or it really was just some bad update....

Re:Additional updates since the initial crash

[Daetrin]

local security experts say that this is an example of an advanced persistent threat.

That sounds like an apt description of events.

Re:Additional updates since the initial crash

[Sloppy]

That sounds like an apt description of events.

Let's wait to see what yummy details emerge.

Re:INFOCOM LEVEL 3!

[emho24]

INFOCOM LEVEL 3

Boo, I thought this was a text adventure game that I somehow overlooked when I was younger.

Not really

[slashmydots]

It was merely an attempt to contain Gangnam Style.

Re:Not really

[davidbrit2]

Don't worry, Harlem Shake (whatever that is) appears to have taken care of that problem.

prelude to what the west can expect from china

[WindBourne]

Nk gets its help from its partner; China. I would not be surprised to find that the bios/eeprom was shipped with back doors.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:INFOCOM LEVEL 3!

[Looker_Device]

At level 0 Slim Pickens releases the great DDoS.

update ?

[Spaham]

So, they updated to windows 8 finally ?

Re:This is a good thing.

[Xest]

I'm intrigued to know whether given the closed nature of North Korea and it's poor education systems whether it has the ability to perform this type of attack entirely indigenously or whether China has helped or given some kind of training on this.

I'm usually one to defend China as I think the threat of it is normally quite overblown, but I'm having a hard time believing North Korea has the talent to have done this entirely by itself.

Re:This is a good thing.

[codegen]

North Korea has detonated several Nuclear Devices recently. While in general the education system is poor, there is a privileged elite that does get good education. So while I have to wait and see, I'm not going to be terribly surprised if the trail leads to NK. But I won't be surprised if it leads to China either.