Bunch of amateurs
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Chin Young
Transition officials trigger commotion with imaginary NK cyber attack briefing
By Chung Min-uck
The transition team of President-elect Park Geun-hye Thursday triggered confusion by reversing itself on what it said during a morning briefing was a “suspected hacking attempt by North Korea.”
Hours later during a briefing, spokesman Yoon Chang-jung said, “There was a mistake in the morning briefing,” but he refused to answer whether there was a hacking attempt in the first place, not to mention Pyongyang’s involvement.
Rep. Chin Young, vice chairman of the transition team, was also present at the briefing, along with Lim Jong-hoon, chief administrative staffer. Chin reacted with a smile while Yoon was delivering the briefing.
The briefing was held at 10 a.m., and referred to reports about a North Korean hacking attempt widely spread by the mass media. The correction came almost hours later at 3:30 p.m.
Lee Won-ki, an official at the spokesman’s office, said in the morning that there was a suspected hacking of the computer server that handled the Internet for press rooms at the team’s offices in the Korea Banking Institute building.
“Intelligence authorities have conducted a security check-up on the transition team and found out that the North has either hacked or at least attempted hacking the server,” said the official. “However, only the press rooms were affected.”
“The media support team was notified of the situation,” Lim said. He advised reporters to run computer antivirus programs and change passwords more often.
In the afternoon, the spokesman said, “it is true that the press rooms are vulnerable to hacking attacks” but “it was not clear whether there was a hacking attempt.”
The team’s press rooms are thought to be more vulnerable to cyber attacks than the main office. Anyone can freely access the Internet in them by connecting to automatic Internet Protocol (IP) addresses provided there.
"Security authorities had asked the administrative office of the transition team to advise reporters to use antivirus programs and change passwords often as the press room is vulnerable to outside hacking attempts," Yoon said.
"There was some misunderstanding in the course of delivering this," he said.
The announcement soon triggered criticism regarding the security of the team which has put “security” and “secrecy” at the forefront of its decision-making process.
The main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP) soon lambasted it.
"The transition team is out of its mind. Did they say without sufficient examination that North Korea was involved in hacking the transition committee’s computers?" the party said in a statement. "It is so shameful that this kind of thing happened," it said. The DUP added the false announcement caused concern among the public that important information might have been leaked.
North Korea attempted to hack the transition team office for then President-elect Lee Myung-bak in 2007.
“Checking on whether or not the hacking was conducted by the North takes months,” said Lim Jong-in, chief director of the Center for Information Security Technology at Korea University. “It takes time and it is ridiculous for the transition team to conclude that the hacking was conducted by the North.”
“I heard the incoming government is planning to establish a control tower for national security. I hope the incident serves as momentum to empower the cyber security section.”
Some say, if the North had conducted the hacking, it could have acquired information about the incoming government’s key policies including ones related to it.
The team members are currently discussing what North Korea policies should be adopted including revising halted inter-Korean trade _ excepting the joint cooperation at the Gaeseong Industrial Complex _ resuming the suspended tours to Mt. Geumgang and expanding humanitarian aid.
The President-elect earlier hinted at a softer policy of engagement with the North; she also said she was open to inter-Korea dialogue.
“Pyongyang is concerned about the transition team as the decisions made there will have a significant influence on inter-Korean relations,” said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul. “The attempt must have been aimed at digging up information on the team. That’s the primary purpose. Causing confusion would be secondary.”
North Korea has been accused of a carrying out a series of hacking attacks on South Korea in recent years.
On Wednesday, the National Police Agency said Pyongyang was behind last year's cyber attack on the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper, saying the hacking method and IP addresses used were either similar or identical to those used in previous attacks.