South Korean Government Reportedly Hit By 114,000 Cyberattacks From 2011 To Mid-2015, Says the National Assembly’s Public Administration & Security Committee

According to Newsweek on Monday, the National Assembly's Public Administration & Security Committee reported on Friday South Korea has revealed that its government institutions have been hit by cyberattacks over 114,000 times from 2011 until June of 2015. Some cyberattacks were done to leak sensitive date, while others were undertaken in the effort to access confidential information.

CNET reported on Sept. 20, among the institutions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was greatly affected by 8,663 recorded cyberattacks, excluding those blocked by web security systems and those already recorded by the National Intelligence Service of Seoul and the Defense Ministry.

5,735 attacks were made against the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, 5,224 for the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs and 3,000 each for the National Police Agency and the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

"If confidential state information leaks out, the consequences can be immense and more than 100,000 cases of hacking against government facilities have taken place," said Im Su Kyung, a member of the National Assembly's Public Administration & Security committee. "We must do more to stop the growing number and the growing number of types of cyberattacks."

Of the total cyberattacks, half of the IP addresses originated from South Korea. 18,943 were recorded to be from China and 8,092 from the U.S. One percent of the total number of attacks were traced to North Korea.

Analysts, however, point out that the figures do not assure Pyongyang is not the mastermind behind some attacks. North Korea has 1,024 IP addresses with a sole cable linking their network to China's.

Cybersecurity researcher from Chatham House in U.K., Caroline Baylon, said the lack in connectivity in North Korea may imply that attacks were made in, or were arranged by, North Korea, which did not appear in the recently reported figures.

"I would imagine that some significant percentage of what is being reported as China is North Korea," said Baylon. "So it's not surprising that North Korea doesn't show up in the numbers. It's there but it's just not recorded."

"It has to be said that North Korea has the capability but just about every state has the capability [to carry out cyberattacks]," noted Alan Woodward, a visiting professor at Surrey University and an advisor to Europol on cybercrime. "It's highly likely that [North Korea is involved] but it's also highly likely that other people are interested in [hacking South Korea] as well."