Jun Ji-hye, a reporter at the finance desk of The Korea Times, focuses primarily on economic policy and government agencies, mainly covering the Ministry of Finance and Economy, the Ministry of Budget and Planning, the National Tax Service and the Korea Customs Service. She previously covered financial authorities, including the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service, and earlier worked on the political, city and business desks, reporting on a wide range of issues.
'Data on military communication system hacked'
By Jun Ji-hye
Information about the military’s joint tactical communications system has been stolen by unidentified hackers, Rep. Song Young-keun of the ruling Saenuri Party said Thursday.
Song said computer networks of local defense equipment manufacturers were hacked in May 2013, and the hacked information included the source code of the tactical network system involving the Navy’s elite Aegis destroyers, and the digital C4I (command, control, communications, computers and intelligence) system. The companies participated in the development of the systems.
The Defense Security Command (DSC) submitted the date to the lawmaker ahead of a parliamentary audit session.
Defense observers said that the source code of the tactical communications system being hacked is a very serious problem because the code is key information about how the system works. If this information is handed over to the enemy, they could plant a malignant code and interrupt the operations of the South Korean military, they said.
The tactical communications system is designed to enable the Army, Navy and Air Force to share information in real time so that they can jointly respond to an enemy attack smartly and quickly.
For example, when a North Korean submarine is detected, the Navy’s Aegis destroyers and the Air Force’s KF-16s or F-15Ks can jointly respond based on the info-sharing and coordination under the system.
The C4I system referred to the military’s improved command system that the government has been developing since 2000. The C4I project, based on advanced domestic IT technologies, connects troops in the field to distant headquarters.
Rep. Song, a member of the National Assembly Defense Committee, noted that the DSC traced the IP address of hackers and concluded that it was based in China, not ruling out the possibility that North Korea was behind the hacking.
“It is highly likely that North Korea or China attempted to hack the companies' network,” Song said. “If it was Pyongyang, it will immediately pose serious threats to the defense system of our military.”
Song added that the military has suffered a total of 3,724 hacking attacks over the past three years, and cleared viruses from 52,361 computers. Among them, 924 cases involved malicious codes.
“The military should pay full attention to strengthening the cyber defense as inattention to such hacking attacks can constitute a threat to cyber security,” he said.
The Ministry of National Defense explained that the military’s investigation into the 2013 hacking incident that Song spoke of was already closed with the conclusion that the leaked information would not greatly affect the military’s operations.
“The ministry is mulling measures to tighten up the information security,” it said.
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