From Yonhap
South Korea was trying to figure out the cause of massive computer network failures at major TV stations and banks Wednesday, but nothing has been determined yet, including whether North Korea was involved in the suspected cyber attacks, government officials and police said.
At least three broadcasters -- KBS, MBC and YTN -- and two banks -- Shinhan Bank and Nonghyup -- reported to the National Police Agency (NPA) that their computer networks were entirely halted around 2 p.m. for unknown reasons, police said.
"Reports have been made simultaneously so we have dispatched investigators to the scene," a police officer handling cyber-terrorism at the NPA said, adding that officers will review all possibilities, including a cyber attack. read more
From Huffington Post
KBS employees said they watched helplessly as files stored on their computers began disappearing as the computer went into shutdown mode.
"It's got to be a hacking attack," Lim Jong-in, dean of Korea University's Graduate School of Information Security. "Such simultaneous shutdowns cannot be caused by technical glitches."
Shinhan Bank said its networks were back online by 3:50 p.m. (0650 GMT), and that banking was back to normal at branches and online.
But computers at KBS and MBC were still down more than three hours after the shutdown began, the news outlets said. read more
From AP
Immediate suspicion fell on North Korea.
Tensions between the neighboring countries are high following North Korea's recent nuclear test and U.N. sanctions that followed. Accusations of cyberattacks on the Korean Peninsula are not new. Seoul believes Pyongyang was behind at least two cyberattacks on local companies in 2011 and 2012.
Internet access in Pyongyang was intermittent at times last week, and Loxley Pacific Co., the broadband Internet provider for North Korea, said it was investigating an online attack that took down Pyongyang servers. A spokesman for the Bangkok-based company said Friday that it was not clear where the attack originated. Experts indicated it could take months to determine what happened and one analyst suggested hackers in China were a more likely culprit.
North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency blamed the shutdown on the United States and South Korea, accusing the allies of expanding an aggressive stance against Pyongyang into cyberspace with "intensive and persistent virus attacks."
South Korea denied the allegation and the U.S. military declined to comment. Read More