http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200508/200508310029.html Aug. 31, 2005 When the website of a local Education Office was hacked in January, the hacker, who went in through a Chinese website, got hold of the phone numbers, IDs and PIN numbers of hundreds of members, and using them was able to take a peek at their e-mails. Posing as the website administrator, the hacker played havoc with the site, changing it as he pleased. The National Intelligence Service and National Cyber Security Center discovered that the man had hacked into some 170 local and foreign websites over a single year. Educational institutions are the preferred target of hackers, making up 52 percent of the 2,951 websites damaged in the first half of the year, according to government materials. Authorities are not saying whether any of the sites hacked this year are security-related, but last year 211 PCs at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, National Maritime Police Agency and Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute were accessed by persons unknown. Some of the terminals had defense secrets stored on them. Attempts to track down the culprits revealed that the hackers were very likely Chinese, but because of potential diplomatic consequences the government took no particular measures. Investigation shows that the computers of Korean public institutions are being hacked almost indiscriminately. This year¡¯s 2,951 cyber-violations of public institutions were twice the total over the same period last year (1,482), and 74 percent of last year¡¯s total of 3,970 incidents. Last year's total in turn was triple the number of 2003. National bodies, local governments, research institutes, educational institutions, government affiliates -- they are all increasingly fair game for hackers. An official with the Korea Information Security Agency says most incidents are perpetrated by skilled hackers through several avenues, ¡°and because investigative cooperation with states like China is not working properly, there are many cases where catching the hackers is impossible.¡± The result is that authorities can only guess what information hackers got away with, he adds. _________________________________________ Attend ToorCon Sept 16-18th, 2005 Convention Center San Diego, California www.toorcon.org
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