[News Today] RUSSIAN HACKERS ATTACK COURTS

[LEAD]
Yesterday afternoon, a suspected DDoS attack paralyzed court websites nationwide, causing user inconvenience. Circumstances point to the Russian hacker group reported by KBS.

[REPORT]
The court homepages became inaccessible all over the country at around 3:20 p.m. Thursday.

The National Court Administration announced that there were activities suspected of being DDoS attacks.

DDoS attack overwhelms a computer system with simultaneous connections from multiple computers.

The NCA said that the court computer systems were disconnected immediately after the attacks were detected and there was no damage to the internal system.

But there were no official words about who targeted the Korean courts and why.

But KBS found circumstances pointing to a Russian hacker group masterminding the disruptions.

The hacking organization is 'NoName' as reported by KBS on November 6th.

This crime ring posted a list of DDoS attack targets, which included the IP addresses of three Korean courts including the Daejeon District Court and the Supreme Court's Electronic Case Filing System.

'NoName' posted the list with IP addresses of public institutions at around 3:10 p.m. on November 7th.

There are concerns that public agencies other than the courts might have come under attack.

Choi Sang-myung / Security expert
An attack on the control system of crucial infrastructure could cause some degree of physical damage. So, we need to be more alert, respond accordingly.

This hacking group is taking issue with the Korean government's consideration of assisting Ukraine.

Since there may be additional attacks, institutions around the country should be prepared against all types of cyber threats.