Smuggler arrested for helping N. Korea launch cyber attack

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Mon, August 21, 2017 | 19:10

Smuggler arrested for helping N. Korea launch cyber attack

Posted : 2012-06-04 18:41

Updated : 2012-06-04 18:41

By Yi Whan-woo

Police have arrested a smuggler for allegedly helping North Korean intelligence attempt cyber terrorism on government computer networks through online game software.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said Sunday that the 39-year-old man, surnamed Cho, is under investigation for purchasing 10 versions of gambling software with malicious code from North Korean agents in China and distributing them.

Cho is sympathetic with the communist regime, and purchased the programs in September 2009 with malicious intentions, according to police.

“The suspect knew from the beginning that the sellers were North Korean agents,” an investigator said. “When Kim Jong-il died last year, he even sent emails twice to those agents to express his condolences for Kim’s death.”

Police added that Cho was also aware of the fact that the software had malicious code programmed for cyber attacks on government websites, but went ahead and brought them into the country.

Cho sold the software to a number of illegal online gambling website operators, while running some of the websites himself.

Police said that the North Korean hackers at a Sunyang-based trading company tried to break into the cyber network of Incheon International Airport in 2009 using those websites. The scheme failed as the national Cyber Security Center detected the attempt in advance and took appropriate measures.

Investigators found that Cho also obtains private information on the users of the gambling websites at local portals.

“We believe that North Korean hackers have possibly made successful attacks on some local portal sites in the country, and we’ll look into that,” an officer said.

The malicious code in the software could be used for distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. A possible attack can be set up when users of computers or Internet servers download a program with such malware.

The code spreads when the infected systems are connected to the Internet. Hackers then can strike at targeted cyber networks through a flood of traffic that overwhelms the bandwidth or resources a network can manage. More than 80,000 computers here suffered DDoS attacks in July 2009, and the government suspects North Korea was behind them.

북한 정찰총국으로부터 악성코드를 숨긴 게임 프로그램을 구입해 국내 유통시키고 국가 전산망 해킹을 시도한 사행성게임업자가 경찰에 붙잡혔다. 서울경찰청은 북한 공작원과 연계해 국가 전산망 해킹을 시도한 조모(39)씨를 국가보안법 위반 혐의 등으로 구속했다고 3일 밝혔다. 조씨는 2009년 9월 중국 심양에서 북한 공작원 김모(45)씨로부터 악성코드가 숨겨진 불법 사행성 게임 프로그램을 구입한 뒤 수천만원을 건넨 혐의를 받고 있다. 경찰 조사결과 조씨는 김씨가 북한 공작원인 것을 알고, 게임 프로그램 안에 악성코드가 있을 수 있다는 사실을 알면서도 이를 국내에 유통시킨 것으로 드러났다. 조씨는 지난해 12월 김정일 사망 이후 '위대한 민족의 영도자 김정일 장군. 현세기의 가장 위대한 정치가였다'는 내용의 이메일을 북한 공작원에게 2차례 전송했다고 경찰은 전했다. 경찰 관계자는 "북한 정찰총국은 지난해 4월 유포된 악성코드를 통해 인천국제공항 서버에 대한 해킹을 시도했지만 실패했다"며 "조씨는 북한이 만든 불법 사행성 프로그램에 악성코드가 들어있는 것을 알고도 국내에 유통시켜 수억원의 수입을 올렸다"고 말했다. 경찰은 조씨가 국내 유명 포털사이트 회원 정보 수십만건을 수집•보관중인 점을 미뤄 여죄가 더 있을 것으로 보고 수사를 확대하고 있다.

yistory@koreatimes.co.kr