South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) failed to issue pre-warning on the massive cyber attacks this week, while its own cyber terror security center went down for three days after it was attacked, and hastily pointed out North Korea as the "usual suspect," without specific evidence to back its claim _ all undermining the credibility of the nation's top intelligence body, Hankyoreh said Saturday in its editorial.
Since Lee Myung-bak administration came into office, NIS has become arguably the most powerful government organ. Lee appointed one of his confidants as the head of NIS, who was granted private access to Lee.
With the elevated status, NIS officials behave more confidently than before, while regrettably some arrogantly, it said, adding some NIS officials also tried to suppress civil organizations that are critical of Lee's policy.
It pointed out that while NIS conducts through, even severe, investigation into security lapses of other government organs, this time when its own cyber security center was attacked, it was unable to recover for three days.
NIS, together with its U.S. counterpart, discovered signs of a possible attack as early as on July 4, but failed to minimize the damage, it said. "This time, NIS was not only incapable, but was dysfunctional," it said.
Unlike NIS, the U.S. government reacted more cautiously, without pointing out North Korea as the source of the attacks. Based on circumstantial conjecture, yet without evidence, NIS told the media that North Korea was "behind" the cyber attacks.
The intelligence body was persistent with its opinion even when it later said the cyber attacks came through Internet protocols from 19 countries and North Korea was not included, the newspaper said, adding all this adds mistrust on the agency.