SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA North Korea on Friday blamed South Korea and the United States for
cyberattacks that temporarily shut down
websites this week at a time of elevated tensions
over the North's nuclear ambitions. Experts,
however, indicated it could take months to
determine what happened and one analyst suggested hackers in China were a more likely
culprit. Internet access in Pyongyang was intermittent
on Wednesday and Thursday, and Loxley Pacific
Co., the broadband Internet provider for North
Korea, said it was investigating an online attack
that took down Pyongyang servers. A
spokesman for the Bangkok-based company said Friday that it was not clear where the attack
originated. North Korea's official Korean Central News
Agency blamed the shutdown on the United
States and South Korea, accusing the allies of
expanding an aggressive stance against
Pyongyang into cyberspace with "intensive and
persistent virus attacks." South Korea denied the allegation and the U.S.
military declined to comment. Loxley Pacific, which has provided broadband
Internet service in North Korea through a joint
venture with the government since 2010, said
the Internet was back to normal Friday. AP
journalists in Pyongyang also were able to access
the Internet again Friday after two days of disruptions. Most North Koreans do not have
access to the Internet, which remains restricted
to a select group. The cyberattack accusation comes amid a torrent
of North Korean criticism against the U.S. and
South Korea for holding routine joint military
drills that Pyongyang considers preparations for
an invasion. North Korea also is incensed by U.N.
sanctions punishing Pyongyang for testing a nuclear device that it claims to need as a defense
against U.S. aggression. "The U.S. thinks that only it can have nuclear
weapons. But we have nuclear weapons for
justice, and for the sovereignty of our country,"
Lt. Ri Yong Kwon of the North's Korean People's
Army said Friday at the heavily militarized border
dividing the Korean Peninsula. Increasingly, many nations see cyberspace as a
new front for warfare. China and the U.S. have
accused one another of state-backed
cyberspying. Accusations of cyberattacks on the Korean
Peninsula are not new, but it is usually South
Korea accusing the North of unleashing hackers
on its computer networks. Seoul believes
Pyongyang was behind at least two cyberattacks
on local companies in 2011 and 2012. South Korean security experts questioned North
Korea's quick blame of Washington and Seoul
because it can take months to trace the source of
a cyberattack and hackers can easily disguise
their locations. Individual hackers in China, where information
about North Korea's cyberspace and computer
software is more widely available than in the U.S.
and South Korea, are more likely to blame in this
case, said Lim Jong-in, dean of Korea University's
Graduate School of Information Security in Seoul. "There are many Chinese Internet users who
have expressed their hatred of North Korea these
days. I think it's more likely that some of them
launched cyberattacks on North Korean
websites," said Lim. "Many in China know much
more about North Korea's IT environments." Self-styled Chinese patriotic hackers have
attacked the websites of foreign governments
and private corporations at times of tension with
Japan, France, Germany and others. Outrage
might be sparked by territorial disputes,
diplomatic snubs or perceived insults to China. Such hackers, working individually or in tight
networks, with or without government
knowledge, may have been similarly riled up
over North Korea's latest provocations, including
the Feb. 12 nuclear test. China had urged North Korea not to conduct the
provocative test, and Beijing gave its support to
U.N. sanctions punishing Pyongyang in the wake
of the underground explosion, the North's third.
The test has drawn vocal criticism from middle-
class urban Chinese and even government- backed scholars.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/0...korea-causing-internet-outage-in-cyber-attack