By Kang Seung-woo
Chinese retaliatory actions against the deployment of a U.S. anti-missile system in South Korea are expanding into the virtual world as alleged Chinese cyberattacks on Korean websites are increasing.
In addition, online retaliation to the decision to base a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system here is expected to intensify as Chinese hackers have declared war on South Korea.
According to the security industry, Wednesday, a Chinese hacking team named Panda Intelligence Bureau (PIB) recently vandalized 10 Korean websites, leaving messages reading “Boycott Lotte, resist THAAD. Lotte get out of China.”
Those who fell victim to the cyberattacks included websites for the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, the World Taekwondo Championships and the Seoul Metropolitan Government.
In addition, the website of Lotte Duty Free was temporarily shut down by unidentified hackers on March 2 in what could be seen as part of the Chinese retaliation over the planned THAAD deployment.
“It is rare that a large number of local websites are defaced at the same time,” an industry official said.
“Those cases seem related to the THAAD issue.”
South Korea and the United States agreed to deploy THAAD on the Korean Peninsula last July to deter evolving North Korean nuclear and missile threats. They have begun the process with parts of the system arriving here, Monday.
However, China strongly opposes the missile interceptor, claiming it could be used to nullify its own military strike capabilities.
In retaliation to the THAAD deployment, the Chinese government has verbally ordered Chinese travel companies to suspend sales of all travel packages _ both online and offline _ to South Korea. It also closed 39 Lotte Mart stores in China for at least a month due to a breach of fire regulations as of Tuesday.
Late last month, Lotte Group agreed to a land swap deal, in which it would provide one of its golf resorts in the southeastern county of Seongju for the military to station a THAAD battery there, in exchange for military land elsewhere in the country.
Cyberattacks from China are expected to ensue for the time being as its hackers have issued warnings to South Korea and Lotte.
“We Chinese hackers officially declared war on South Korea,” a Weibo account said.
Another said, “Chinese hackers, attack South Korea.”
In the face of possible cyberattacks from China, the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning and the Korea Internet and Security Agency (KISA) have beefed up their monitoring on websites of the nation’s top 100 major firms first.
Their 170-strong monitoring staff is checking whether the companies’ websites were infected with malware or targeted by distributed denial of service (DDoS) or defacement attacks.
“We took proper measures with the affected websites and extended technical assistance to them to prevent additional damage,” a KISA official said.
“As each site cannot defend itself from online threats with its own security staff, they should report to the KISA when they are hit by cyberattacks.”
Observers say that considering China’s cyber capabilities, the Korean government is required to come up with government-level efforts to prevent possible large-scale attempts by China to compromise or take down domestic computer networks or systems.