Korean hackers, MyDoom worm suspected in DDoS attacks
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Government websites in the U.S. and South Korea were hit by a major cyberattack beginning on July 4, which intelligence officials believe were launched by hackers sympathetic to the authoritarian regime in North Korea.
U.S. officials told the Associated Press that websites for the Treasury department, the Secret Service, the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Transportation were hit by a sustained distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS) over the holiday weekend.
South Korean intelligence officials said a botnet of 18,000 infected computers located on the Korean peninsula was used to launch the attacks, according to the Korea Herald.
A series of attacks on South Korean government sites began on Tuesday, including the sites of the office of the president, Cheong Wa Dae and the National Assembly, Ministry of Defense and Shinhan Bank and Korea Exchange Bank, the newspaper reported.
Amy Kudwa, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team issued a notice to federal departments and "advised them of steps to take to help mitigate against such attacks," according to the AP.
Web security researchers from AhnLab said the attack could have been spawned by PCs infected with a version of the MyDoom worm, according to IDG News Service.
Related News:
Don't worry about network security: Nine-year-old Marko's got your back - 1.22.2010
Marko Calasan is a Macedonian IT whiz and systems administrator who remotely manages a network of computers owned by a nonprofit that helps connect people with disabilities. Not much of a story, except for the consideration of Calasan's age: He's nine years old.
Apple releases patches for OS X security flaws - 1.21.2010
Vulnerabilities in OS X 10.5 and 10.6 were addressed in Apple's first security update of 2010, patching a dozen known security holes in the Mac operating system.
British university slammed by unknown virus - 1.21.2010
Network security at the UK's University of Exeter was breached by an unidentified virus on Monday, taking down the entirety of the institution's computer capacity and, local paper the Express and Echo reports, even spreading to the school's telephone network.
Pioneering CEO of Real Networks steps down - and some say 'good riddance' - 1.19.2010
Rob Glaser, the controversial head of Real Networks, stepped down from his position last week amid comment from all corners of the tech world, but critics say that not enough accounts mention Glaser's record of spreading intrusive software.
Gmail improves network security for clients - 1.14.2010
Secure HTTP access to Google's free Gmail service is now active by default, the company announced earlier this week, making Gmail messages less susceptible to unauthorized access.
|
