<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>N. Korean army lab 'ordered to destroy networks'
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->Seoul - A North Korean army lab of hackers was ordered to 'destroy' South Korean communications networks - evidence that the isolated regime was behind cyber attacks that paralysed South Korean and American websites, news reports said yesterday, citing an intelligence briefing.
Members of South Korea's parliamentary intelligence committee have said in recent days that the National Intelligence Service (NIS) has also pointed to a North Korean boast last month that it was 'fully ready for any form of high-tech war'.
The spy agency told lawmakers on Friday that a research institute affiliated with the North's Ministry of People's Armed Forces received an order to 'destroy the South Korean puppet communications networks in an instant', the mass-circulation JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported.
The paper, citing unidentified members of Parliament's intelligence committee, said the institute - known as Lab 110 - specialises in hacking and spreading malicious programs.
The Ministry of People's Armed Forces is the secretive nation's defence ministry.
The NIS said it could not confirm the report. The agency, however, issued a statement late yesterday saying it has 'various evidence' of North Korean involvement, though it has yet to reach a conclusion.
The state-run Korea Communications Commission said on Friday that it had identified and blocked five Internet protocol (IP) addresses in five countries used to distribute computer viruses that caused the wave of website outage, which began in the United States on July 4.
The addresses point to the computers that distributed the viruses. The viruses triggered so-called denial of service attacks - or floods of computers trying to connect to a single site at the same time, overwhelming the server.
They were in Austria, Georgia, Germany, South Korea and the US, a commission official said.
The assaults appear to be on the wane. No new similar cyber attacks have been reported in South Korea since Friday evening, according to the state-run Korea Information Security Agency.
AP
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->Seoul - A North Korean army lab of hackers was ordered to 'destroy' South Korean communications networks - evidence that the isolated regime was behind cyber attacks that paralysed South Korean and American websites, news reports said yesterday, citing an intelligence briefing.
Members of South Korea's parliamentary intelligence committee have said in recent days that the National Intelligence Service (NIS) has also pointed to a North Korean boast last month that it was 'fully ready for any form of high-tech war'.
The spy agency told lawmakers on Friday that a research institute affiliated with the North's Ministry of People's Armed Forces received an order to 'destroy the South Korean puppet communications networks in an instant', the mass-circulation JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported.
The paper, citing unidentified members of Parliament's intelligence committee, said the institute - known as Lab 110 - specialises in hacking and spreading malicious programs.
The Ministry of People's Armed Forces is the secretive nation's defence ministry.
The NIS said it could not confirm the report. The agency, however, issued a statement late yesterday saying it has 'various evidence' of North Korean involvement, though it has yet to reach a conclusion.
The state-run Korea Communications Commission said on Friday that it had identified and blocked five Internet protocol (IP) addresses in five countries used to distribute computer viruses that caused the wave of website outage, which began in the United States on July 4.
The addresses point to the computers that distributed the viruses. The viruses triggered so-called denial of service attacks - or floods of computers trying to connect to a single site at the same time, overwhelming the server.
They were in Austria, Georgia, Germany, South Korea and the US, a commission official said.
The assaults appear to be on the wane. No new similar cyber attacks have been reported in South Korea since Friday evening, according to the state-run Korea Information Security Agency.
AP
