Attending a parliamentary budget subcommittee meeting on November 21, presidential aide Lee Jung-do briefly mentioned past occurrences of hacking attempts made on the Blue House when he said, “There are 500 to 600 hacking attempts from the outside made on the Blue House every month.” (Image: Yonhap)
SEOUL, Nov. 23 (Korea Bizwire) – Attending a parliamentary budget subcommittee meeting on November 21, presidential aide Lee Jung-do briefly mentioned past occurrences of hacking attempts made on the Blue House when he said, “There are 500 to 600 hacking attempts from the outside made on the Blue House every month.”
Cyberattacks on government databases have been consistently rising both in number and the level of threat posed. The most damaging case recently was the hacking of the Ministry of National Defense’s database last September. Hackers believed to be North Korean made off with classified documents that were later revealed to contain military operations details for rebuffing potential North Korean invasions, among other sensitive material.
The military concluded after an internal investigation that the hackers had infiltrated its secure computer network by first successfully hacking the computers of a vaccine distribution company and stealing its source code and certification data. They then targeted a server that was connected to the vaccine company and infected the server and connected computers with malicious code.
North Korea analysts have said the reclusive country has increased its “hacker army” from 7,000 to 10,000 after Kim Jong-un’s rise to power. (Image: Yonhap)
The government filed a lawsuit demanding reparations of up to 5 billion won from both the vaccine company and the developer of the military’s computer network on October 26.
The Blue House’s official website was hacked in 2013 with a message praising North Korean leader Kim Jong-un posted on the screen. North Korean analysts have said the reclusive country has increased its “hacker army” from 7,000 to 10,000 after Kim Jong-un’s rise to power.
Citing the need to upgrade the operating systems of the Blue House’s computers from Windows 7 to 10, Lee appealed to the subcommittee for 700 million won in funding. After some back and forth, both sides agreed to a sum of 670 million won.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
