[ISN] Hackers Attack 92,000 Korean Computers

From: InfoSec News (alerts@private)
Date: Thu Feb 08 2007 - 22:07:54 PST


http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200702/200702090011.html

Feb. 9, 2007 

Some 1,000 Korean Internet sites were attacked, leaving 92,000 Korean 
computers infected with a malicious computer program, the Korea 
Information Security Agency (KISA) announced Thursday. The KISA said 
that it took emergency measures against a malicious computer program 
that steals the personal information of Korean gamers. The agency told 
1,000 Internet sites that they had fallen victim to large-scale computer 
break-ins and advised them to delete the program.

Hackers aimed to obtain IDs and passwords of Korean gamers who use 
online games Hangame and MapleStory, targeting the Internet sites of the 
game companies. When users log into the hacked sites, the malicious 
program is stealthily installed on their computers, throwing the door 
open for hackers to steal their IDs and passwords.

The computer security agency said that 620,000 Korean computers were 
attacked and 92,000 of those with weak security protection were infected 
by the program. The agency believes that a group of Chinese hackers 
committed the attack, as Korea is often a target of Chinese 
cyber-thieves looking to steal personal information.

The hackers took advantage of security flaws in the Microsoft Windows 
operating system. The attack did not affect computer users who regularly 
updated a free security program distributed by Microsoft via the 
Internet. The computer security agency advised personal computer users 
to download an automatic security update program from a site jointly 
established by the agency and Microsoft if they want to block further 
break-in attempts.


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