North Korea is under cyber watch over South Korean DDoS attacks

THE GOVERNMENT of South Korea has warned computer users to firm up their electronic defences after distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks were launched against a number of important websites.

The attacks were confirmed to have hit a number of government targets, including presidential and military websites. US forces based in Korea as well as major banks were also said to be targeted.

The Korea Communications Commission said computer users should start their machines in safe mode so that malware won't hit their systems. It issued an alert that around 40 websites were targeted, with 29 coming under DDoS attacks.

It would very easy to suspect the North Koreans of carrying the attacks but it's far from certain that this is the case. The attack originated from 30 servers in 18 foreign countries, said the National Police Agency in a Washington Post report.

Similar events occurred two years ago. South Korea government officials believed it was North Korea, but again the origin of the attack wasn't proven to have been North Korea.

It is natural for South Korean government agencies to link North Korea to any attack against key institutions. But you might wonder if there was any point for a government to pursue unwanted attention for a state-sponsored attack that didn't cause much real damage. µ