N. KOREAN HACKERS TARGET SECURITY EXPERTS

[Anchor Lead]

It has been found a North Korean hacker group disguised themselves as a journalist and personnel from the national assembly's office, to look into emails of experts in national unification, security, diplomacy and defense. They either attached a malicious code or lured recipients to open phishing websites, but luckily, no important intelligence was leaked.

[Pkg]

This email was sent to a national security and diplomacy expert back in May. Introducing him- or herself as a secretary of the assembly members' office room, the sender offered a financial reward for receiving help with a seminar. The email contained an attached payment request form that the recipient was asked to fill out. But it turned out to be a malicious code. The moment it was opened, all the information stored in the computer was exposed.

[Soundbite] Tae Yong-ho(People Power Party) : "I was astonished at how meticulous they are. I thought the email was from the assembly members' office staff and even checked with them."

The sender was not the assembly members' office room staff but a hacker group from North Korea. The hackers pretended to be journalists and lured recipients to open phishing websites disguised as domestic portals to steal their IDs and passwords. They sent more than 800 emails using this method, mostly targeting South Korea's diplomacy and national security experts.

[Soundbite] Lee Byung-kil(Nat’l Police Agency) : "All these phishing emails target experts in national unification, security, diplomacy and defense."

A total of 49 experts have fallen victim to the hacking attack, but no important intelligence was leaked. Police believe the perpetrators are a hacker group called Kimsuky, which masterminded a hacking attack on the Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power back in 2014. Police have confirmed that for the first time the hackers distributed ransomware that blocks data usage and obtained bitcoin in return for unblocking the malicious program.