Officers in South Korea's military command and control centre
have been the
target of a spyware attack, allegedly carried out by North
Korea's electronic warfare division.
Newspapers in Seoul have speculated that the victims of the
attack, which took the form of a malicious e-mail attachment
designed to steal documents from infected computers, were on a list
of military contacts given to North Korea by a woman facing trial
in South Korea on treason charges.
The woman defected to the North in 2005. She is reported to have
toured South Korean military bases under the guise of lecturing on
the evils of Kim II Sung's communist regime, but really used the
opportunity to seduce army officers in exchange for military
secrets.
"North Korea is the latest in this year's roll call of
countries accused of engaging in cyber warfare," said Graham
Cluley, senior technology consultant at web security software firm
Sophos.
"Countries around the world have been spying for centuries and
there is no reason to believe they would not now
use more up-to-date methods, along with the age old technique
of deploying a pretty woman to weadle out the information."
He added, "In this instance, it is not known if any military
secrets were stolen, but it is an embarrassing breach of
security."
Earlier this year it was reported that Germany's foreign
intelligence service had allegedly used malware to spy on the
Afghan ministry.
Belgium has also accused China of cyber-espionage, and Indian
officials claimed Chinese hackers had targeted its Ministry of
External Affairs and the National Informatics Centre.