I am an editorial writer at The Korea Times, focusing on foreign policy, North Korea and domestic politics. My key areas of interest include North Korea, foreign interference in elections, election integrity, cyberattacks and human rights. Prior to joining the Editorial Board, I served as both Politics Desk editor and Culture Desk editor. During my career, I have reported on the Presidential Office under the Lee Myung-bak administration, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Assembly.
N. Korea attempted to hack G20 committee
By Kang Hyun-kyung
North Korea allegedly attempted to hack the Presidential Committee for the G20 Summit several times recently, according to a local media report, Thursday.
MBC reported that the National Intelligence Service suspected the North in a recent hacking attempt of the committee’s computer network.
The spy agency, however, stopped short of directly blaming North Korea for the attempts.
The agency suspected that Pyongyang hacked the websites of ministries, government agencies and legislative officials’ personal computers in an effort to gather intelligence.
The NIS was quoted as saying that the North Korean military has a unit consisted of approximately 1,000 trained hackers and their skills are “noteworthy.”
About 9,200 cases of hacking into websites of government agencies were reported this year alone. In 2004, 48,000 attempts were recorded.