[ISN] Hackers Strike Six State Agencies

From: InfoSec News (isn@private)
Date: Sun Jun 20 2004 - 23:18:15 PDT

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    http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/200406/kt2004062017114010440.htm
    
    By Kim Tae-gyu 
    Staff Reporter
    06-20-2004
    
    The computer systems of six of Korea's state agencies, including a
    pair of sensitive defense research institutes, were cracked by an
    anonymous hacker or hackers, according to the National Cyber Security
    Center (NCSC).
    
    The anti-cyber crime institute said on Saturday that the Peep Trojan
    hacking program infected 64 computers at six government agencies,
    including the Agency for Defense Development (ADD) and the Korea
    Institute for Defense Analyses (KIDA).
    
    Also affected were the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, the
    Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, the National Maritime
    Police Agency, and the Small and Medium Business Administration.
    
    ``As soon as we discovered some government computers were contaminated
    by the Peep Trojan hacking program, we took emergency measures and
    currently there is no risk of data outflow,'' the NCSC said in a
    statement.
    
    The NCSC added it shut down the hackers' posting site, distributed
    anti-virus programs and updated the anti-hacking system to prevent a
    recurrence of the dangerous incursion.
    
    The agency, however, failed to confirm whether or not confidential
    information was stolen from the invaded agencies before the presence
    of the virus was detected.
    
    The ADD and the KIDA maintain a large amount of material, the former
    being a research institute for developing Korea's weapon systems while
    the latter focuses on research related to the nation's defense policy.
    
    The Peep Trojan hacking program, which has wrought havoc this year,
    especially in Taiwan, was authored by Taiwanese Wang Ping-an, arrested
    by the country's cyber security authorities last month, the NCSC said.
    
    The information-stealing virus typically comes in the form of an
    e-mail attachment and executes itself when unsuspecting recipients
    open the attached files.
    
    Once launched, the malicious program gives unauthorized access to
    hackers, enabling them to write, delete or edit files on the infected
    machines without the owner's knowledge.
    
    In an effort to prevent the invasion of other hacking programs, the
    NCSC said it will beef up its monitoring process as well as establish
    a pan-national cyber security system in cooperation with related
    ministries.
    
    The agency also recommended individual computer users update vaccine
    programs and not open e-mail with suspicious attachments.
    
    
    
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