Seoul suspects North Korea behind cyber attacks

(SMH) -Seoul's spy agency has yet to be sure that North Koreans were behind recent cyber attacks on South Korea and the United States but it still sees Pyongyang as a prime suspect, officials said.

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) said in a statement on Sunday it was still looking into "various pieces of evidence" indicating that North Koreans might have orchestrated the attacks against South Korean and US government websites, as well as private websites.

"The NIS ... has yet to reach a final conclusion that the acts have been committed by North Korea," the statement said.

It denied a report by Chosun Ilbo newspaper on Saturday that the NIS had found an internet protocol (IP) address used by a North Korean hacker surnamed Yun, who could be behind the cyber attacks.

It said the Chosun Ilbo report went "too far" and urged local media outlets to be prudent in reporting on the case.

Hackers have planted viruses in thousands of personal computers in South Korea, one of the world's most wired societies, as well as overseas.

These mounted "distributed denial of service" (DDoS) attacks designed to seek simultaneous access to selected sites and swamp them with traffic.

The Korea Communications Commission in Seoul said on Sunday more than 690 personal computers in total had been damaged in the wake of the cyber raid.

The attacks that had crippled some South Korean government websites have now come under control after virus-infected "botnet" hosting servers were isolated and "vaccine" programs were widely distributed to PC users.

The North has staged a nuclear test and numerous missile launches in recent weeks, raising regional tensions.

But a cyber attack, if confirmed, would be a new tactic.

AFP