Cyber Attack in South Korea

Cyber Security has been in the news recently and it seems the threat of cyber crime is increasing every day. As Cyber Security concerns were being reported last week a new cyber attack occurred, this time in South Korea.

Investigators today, March 21, 2013 traced a coordinated cyber-attack that paralyzed tens of thousands of computers at six South Korean banks and media companies to a Chinese internet protocol address, according to authorities in Seoul.

IP addresses, which are unique to each computer connected to the internet, can easily be manipulated by hackers operating anywhere in the world, and the investigation into who was behind Wednesday's attack and whether they were in China will take weeks.

Suspicion for the simultaneous shutdown is focused on North Korea, which has threatened Seoul and Washington in recent days over UN sanctions imposed for its nuclear test conducted on February 12, 2013.

The attack did not affect the government or military, and there were no immediate reports that customers' bank records were compromised. However the cyber attack did disable scores of cash machines across the country, disrupted commerce and renewed questions about South Korea's internet security and vulnerability to hackers.

If the attack was carried out by North Korea, the purpose would seem to be to send a message – and a warning – to South Korea that Pyongyang is capable of breaching its computer networks.

On Thursday, only one of the six targets, Shinhan Bank, was back online and operating regularly.

This proves that Cyber Security is only going to continue to rise in it's importance as land armies begin to become less relevant and cyber war grows in it's importance.