[ISN] North Korea operating computer-hacking unit

From: InfoSec News (isn@private)
Date: Fri May 28 2004 - 05:48:01 PDT

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    Forwarded from: William Knowles <wk@private>
    
    http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2004/05/28/200405280004.asp
    
    shinyb@private
    2004.05.28
    
    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. 
    
    
     
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