By Kim Tae-gyu
No matter who caused the network crash of Nonghyup, the criminals seem to have prepared at least a month for the attack, investigators claimed, which generates fresh concerns that the truth of the case might never be uncovered.
The prosecution said Tuesday that programs were installed step by step at a laptop of an IBM employee inside the Nonghyup IT center to command the deletion of files at servers at the same time.
This brings worries that the criminals might have already created unbeatable alibis or removed evidence before the deletion orders were executed on March 12 to cause nationwide inconvenience.
“It would have taken quite a long time to build the meticulous programs at issue and installed them gradually with a notebook computer,” an official at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office said.
“We think it would have taken at least one month. What we also learned is that the wrongdoings were impossible without the help of insiders since only a few authorized people are admitted to the IT control tower where the laptop was.”
The prosecution has questioned Nonghyup employees and IBM workers who have full access to the high-security codes for the computer system, dubbed “super root” authority. A few are believed to face overseas travel bans.
A laptop of an IBM employee, who stayed at Nonghyup’s IT center in Seoul under an outsourcing contract, was used to command the deletion of files.
“If the criminals worked on the event for such a long time with the assistance of insiders, they would have expected to be caught. Then, it is logical to think that they mapped out ways not to be indicted. Hence, I am concerned that the bad guys will be difficult to find,” a source who is in the info-tech industry said.
The network troubles of Nonghyup left tens of millions of its clients unable to use credit cards and withdraw or transfer money online and offline for several days. Some of the services are still not available.
Nonghyup said that around 1,000 filed complaints to ask for compensation but the Seoul-based outfit has dealt with only nine.
The banking group is expected to face more demands for compensation because the service disruptions were not addressed 100 percent. Worse, many are striving to lodge a class-action lawsuit against Nonghyup by organizing victims through the Internet.