N. Korea has cyber war unit targeting S. Korean, U.S. military: sources

SEOUL, May 5 (Yonhap) -- North Korea operates a cyber warfare unit that seeks to
disrupt South Korean and U.S. military networks and visits U.S. military sites
more frequently than any other country, intelligence sources in Seoul said
Tuesday.
The General Staff of the North's Korean People's Army has been operating for
years a "technology reconnaissance team," which is exclusively in charge of
collecting information and disrupting military computer networks in South Korea
and the U.S., the sources said on condition of anonymity.
Roughly 100 hackers, mostly graduates of a leading military academy in Pyongyang,
work on the team, hacking into South Korean and U.S. computer networks,
withdrawing classified information and establishing combat simulations, they
said.
"This unit tries to hold control of South Korean and U.S. military information
system by hacking into their computer networks and taking out classified data.
When necessary, they may spread computer viruses to disrupt the networks," one of
the sources said.
After years of tracking which countries access U.S. military Web sites and
networks, the U.S. military has found that users inside North Korea logged on
most frequently.
The North Korean unit has also set up simulated war training softwares and
extensive data on South Korean high-ranking military personnel, according to the
sources.
South Korea and the U.S. signed a memorandum of understanding on April 30 to
bolster cooperation in fighting cyber terrorism against their defense networks.
The U.S. maintains 28,500 troops in the South as a deterrent against North Korea.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)