NK suspected in hacking attack on S. Korean grad school

The email accounts of students who finished their degrees at the Graduate School of Information Security of Korea University were belatedly confirmed to have been hacked by external figures assumed to be North Koreans.

According to the university Tuesday, malicious codes containing viruses were simultaneously transmitted to the graduates via the school`s internal email account “cist” early this month. If the code infects a computer with viruses, the documents and images exchanged via email can be easily hacked.

A university source said, "Someone obtained the email addresses of the graduates and spread malicious codes with the aim to obtain information. Since the majority of the graduates are working for the National Intelligence Service or the Defense Ministry, critical information is feared to have been leaked."

Given that the school plans to open a cyber-defense course next year in cooperation with the Defense Ministry to nurture talent to fight North Korean cyber terrorism, the school assumed the North was behind the hacking attack. Shortly after the incident, a professor from the graduate school put up a post on a Facebook page open to school members, saying, "We were hacked. This is apparently the act of North Korea. The email server was penetrated. I will not use the mail server.”

After the attack, intelligence officials paid a visit to the school to examine the email server and trace the email sender.

dodo@donga.com