Source of cyber attacks still matter of dispute

AFP:

Seoul's spy agency has yet to be sure that North Koreans were behind recent cyber attacks on South Korea and the United States but it still sees Pyongyang as a prime suspect, officials said on Sunday.

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) said in a statement it was still looking into "various pieces of evidence" indicating that North Koreans might have orchestrated the attacks against South Korean and US government and private websites.

"The NIS... has yet to reach a final conclusion that the acts have been committed by North Korea," the statement said.

It denied a report by Chosun Ilbo newspaper on Saturday that the NIS had found an Internet protocol (IP) address used by a North Korean hacker surnamed Yun, who could be behind the cyber attacks.

It said the Chosun Ilbo report went "too far" and urged local media outlets to be prudent in reporting on the case.

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The attacks that had crippled some South Korean government websites have now come under control after virus-infected "botnet" hosting servers were isolated and "vaccine" programmes were widely distributed to PC users.

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The AP is still reporting that there is evidence of North Korean involvement. There is certainly reason to be suspicious of the Norks. Some question whether they have the means to mount such an attack, but it does not take that much if you have the intent and the malware.