[Yonhap News Photo]
South Korea has detected a suspected new cyber attack by North Korean hackers to acquire an Internet authentication certificate from a digital security service firm in Seoul, state prosecutors said Tuesday.
The prosecutors office characterized the attack as "cyber terrorism aimed at causing social chaos" in South Korea because the unidentified security firm provides a security solution to major financial institutions.
The suspected attack was staged in November last year to acquire an authentication certificate that was used to infect a key academic institute website with malicious codes, it said, adding Internet Protocol (IP) addresses used to hack into the security firm's server had been traced to North Korea.
The security firm's authentication certificate was used to spread malicious codes to the computer servers of ten central and provincial government organizations through the academic website, prosecutors said, accusing North Korean hackers of trying to steal information. No serious damage was reported.
South Korea has blamed North Korean hackers for deploying malware and virus-carry emails for a series of cyber attacks on military institutions, banks, government agencies, TV broadcasters and media websites in recent years.
The South's Defence Ministry believes North Korea runs an elite cyber warfare unit with up to 6,000 personnel and regards its ability to launch hacking attacks as a major security threat. The recent attack proved that North Korean hackers have upgraded their technology.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
![[FOCUS] Virtual money market down in the doldrums due to regulations and hacking](https://image.ajunews.com/content/image/2018/02/06/20180206105713656390.jpg)
