By Nam Hyun-woo
The website of Cheong Wa Dae was shut down Tuesday due to an unidentified cyber attack.
Authorities couldn’t confirm who the attackers were but didn’t rule out North Korea.
At 9:30 a.m., the presidential homepage was hacked by people claiming to be “Anonymous.” The online activist group later denied any involvement.
The website was saturated with messages lauding North Korean leader Kim Jong-un; one of which read, “Hacked by Anonymous, Hail the great unification President Kim Jong-un. We are Anonymous. We are legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us.”
The messages remained for about 10 minutes before the website displayed an announcement that it was under repair. Normal operations were finally restored at 5 p.m.
Some news media websites and several government agencies, including the Office of Government Policy Coordination were also hacked.
Following the serial cyber attacks, the government issued an alert on “cyber security,” raising its five-stage alert from level one to two.
Anonymous stated on its official Twitter account (@Anonsj), “We didn’t hack any South Korean websites.”
Anonsj said through the account, “Now, our turn,” and claimed that the hacker group had initiated cyber attacks on North Korean websites.
While the websites of government agencies and media companies in the South were under attack, the Anonymous hacker posted that the international hackers’ community had achieved the “status of Tango Down on the target,” major websites in North Korea, at around 1:30 p.m.
South Korea suffered from several large-scale cyber attacks on broadcasters and financial institutions in March.
The government investigation concluded then the assaults originated from the North.
The North’s official websites, including the Korea Central News Agency, Rodong Shinmun and Uriminzokkiri were also down as of noon.
An official at the National Police Agency said “Some North Korean websites are malfunctioning, but further investigation is required since most of those sites’ servers are based both inside and outside the North.”