South Korea's military has been put on alert against overseas hackers who have gained access to some soldiers' personal computers, the defense ministry said yesterday.
It did not identify the country where the hackers are based, but the Chosun Ilbo newspaper said it was China.
The Defense Security Command, which handles counter-intelligence, this week warned all military units to be on the alert against hacking, a ministry spokesman said.
"The alert was issued after the counter-intelligence command found `third-nation' hackers had successfully broken into some soldiers' computers via e-mails to steal private data," the spokesman said. "No military information has been leaked."
The South's military runs its own Intranet, usually disconnected to the Internet, and also has separate servers for processing confidential data, he said.
But the command instructed troops to keep no official data on personal computers and also to update anti-virus programs.
The spokesman said that hackers used emails entitled in Korean "Current state of the North Korean army's capabilities" to arouse the curiosity of soldiers.
The hacking virus starts working when the emails are opened.
The newspaper said military investigators traced the hackers to China, but failed to identify whether they are ordinary citizens or military personnel.
It noted that China launched a military unit called NET Force to carry out online warfare against enemy computer networks in 2000, with 1 million civilian "red hackers" operating in the country.
The Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, a state think-tank affiliated with the defense ministry, said one of its researchers had his computer hacked by a Chinese in 2004.
"The Chinese hacker took out private data, neither official nor confidential, from the researcher's personal computer while pretending to be a Korean e-mailer," a spokesman said.
South Korea is one of the world's most wired societies with 34 million people or 70 percent of the population using the Internet.
PATROL PARTNERS: The ‘Chiayi’ and the ‘Penghu’ departed for a two-day joint patrol of Palau’s exclusive economic zone, the CGA’s second diplomatic visit to the country The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) set a record for its southernmost deployment of a coast guard vessel as the vessels Chiayi and the Penghu reached Palau’s Pulo Anna Island on Saturday in a cooperative exercise between the two countries. The island, about 217 nautical miles (401km) southwest of Koror in the Palauan state of Sonsorol and 1,220 nautical miles from Taiwan’s southernmost point, Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), is the furthest south a CGA vessel has sailed. The two vessels are in Palau for the coast guard’s second diplomatic visit to the country. They docked at Malakal Harbor on Tuesday last week. The coast guard
The government is monitoring online rumors that a pneumonic plague outbreak has spread from Russia into China, and it might enhance quarantine measures, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During a legislative meeting, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said that rumors had circulated that the disease had spread across several Chinese provinces. He asked Cho whether the government was prepared to prevent the disease spreading to Taiwan, given the volume of traffic between the two sides, and how concerned the government was about the alleged outbreak. The Ministry of Health and Welfare had implemented border quarantine measures after briefing the Executive
EAST OF GUAM: Tropical Storm Champi is forecast to strengthen into a typhoon, but its effect on Taiwan is uncertain due to the presence of a high-pressure system Tropical Storm Champi formed yesterday and has the potential to increase in strength, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Forecasters are closely monitoring a Pacific high-pressure system that would dictate whether the storm turns north or moves toward Taiwan next week, the CWA said. The most likely scenario is that it turns northward after passing the Ryukyu Islands, CWA forecaster Cheng Chieh-jen (鄭傑仁) said. As of 8pm yesterday, Champi was east of Guam moving west-northwest at 20kph, CWA data showed. It had maximum sustained winds near the center of 72kph and gusts of up to 101kph, the data showed. If the Pacific high-pressure system
BATCH 1: The military has plans to assign the weapons to the army to defend Taiwan proper, as well as outlying islands and the navy for the Marine Corps, the official said Taiwan is to receive 500 Stinger missiles and 178 launchers from the US by the end of the year, the first batch under a planned two-stage acquisition totaling 2,621 missiles and 763 launchers, a defense official said yesterday on condition of anonymity. The portable missiles would play a vital role in the nation’s air defense capabilities, the source said. The army plans to deploy 2,235 missiles and 657 launchers to defend Taiwan proper and outlying islands, they said, citing military documents. The navy is allotted 295 missiles and 85 launchers to arm the Marine Corps and some surface vessels that lack air defense
RSS