Cyber Attack On South Korea and US Was A Test Run-McAfee

courtesy  www.nytimes.com

North Korea or its sympathizers were likely responsible for the cyberattack against South Korean government and banking websites earlier this year, according to a new analysis that said it also appears to have been linked to the 2009 massive computer-based attack that brought down U.S. government Internet sites.

A study by computer security software maker McAfee Inc. concludes that the attack that targeted more than two dozen sites in South Korea was a type of reconnaissance mission to see how quickly South Korea's government detected the problem and recovered from it. The McAfee report, expected to be released Tuesday, said clues in the code suggest that the attack was probably engineered by North Korea or its sympathizers.

The cyberattack started over the Fourth of July weekend, when hackers targeted the Web sites of the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Treasury, and several other U.S. government organizations. Some reports suggest the White House's Web site may have even been a target, though its functionality did not appear to be affected. The FTC's site, however, was one of several offline as late as Monday.

McAfee security researcher Georg Wicherski deemed the attacks "an armed cyber reconnaissance operation of sorts" aimed at assessing defenses and reaction times of South Korean government and civilian networks.

"Knowing that would be invaluable in a possible future armed confrontation on the peninsula, since cyberspace has already become the fifth battlespace dimension, in addition to land, air, sea, and space," Wicherski said.

The DDoS attacks were made by usurping control of virus-infected computers in South Korea to overwhelm targeted websites with simultaneous requests for pages or information.

Tactics used in the attacks were more destructive than typically seen when legions of infected computers are commanded in "botnets" by hackers, according to McAfee.

The botnet in South Korea was programmed to perform DDoS attacks for 10 days and then self-destruct, frustrating investigators by overwriting or deleting files and codes to the extent the computers could not be booted up.

While the Match attacks were underway, encryption algorithms were used to mask parts of malicious code and stymie analysis by defenders. "This wasn't a surgical strike; it was more like a sledgehammer, as most DDoS attacks are," the McAfee report said.

"The attackers relied on the encryption to buy them more time against reverse engineering until the DDoS attack window expired."

Steps were taken to ensure that the mission was executed without interruption, within the predefined attack window, and then all vehicles of attack would be destroyed, the report concluded.

South Korean prosecutors said North Korean hackers were behind the so-called denial-of-service attack early this spring, but The North's Ministry of the People's Armed Forces denied it.

Because of the difficulties in determining exactly who launched the attack, there is no way to declare it an act of war by another country or an act of cyberterrorism, espionage or more basic crime by a militant group or others. International officials, in fact, are still trying to define cyberwar.

The Defense Department is poised to release its new cybersecurity strategy which declares cyber as a warfighting domain and begins to lay out how the U.S. can respond to cyberattacks. And U.S. officials are working with allies and international organizations to develop guidelines governing the use of computer-based capabilities as weapons.

President Barack Obama signed execute orders a few months ago that provide commanders guidance on how they can use cyber operations as part of their military arsenal.

South Korea Planning On Deploying Apache Helicopters On Its Border With North Korea

South Korea is considering deploying Apache attack helicopters on one of its western sea border islands in preparation against surprise infiltrations of North Korea's air-cushioned vessels, a defense source said Sunday.

"A helicopter hangar under construction on Baengnyeong Island is capable of accommodating large-sized attack helicopters. Some Apache-class attack helicopters to be imported next year will be deployed on the border island in the long term," said the source, asking anonymity.

The military is scheduled to introduce 36 Apache-class attack helicopters around October next year in response to the growing possibility of surprise attacks by the North's special commandos.

"North Korea has completed the construction of a new sprawling naval base on Goampo of Hwanghae Province. The North's new naval base appears to be far bigger than previously expected and capable of accommodating about 60 air-cushioned vessels," said the defense source.

The North's Goampo base is about 50 kilometers from the northernmost South Korean island of Baengnyeong."With the completion of the Goampo naval base, the possibility of the North's surprise naval attacks has further heightened, raising the need to arm Baengnyeong Island with advanced attack helicopters," the source said.

He noted that the helicopter hangar on Baengnyeong Island, located just west of Yeonpyeong Island, which was shelled by the North's artillery last November, will be completed by the year's end.

The western sea border has been a constant source of military tension between the two Koreas. Tension in the area has risen further after the North sank a South Korean warship near Baengnyeong Island in March last year and bombarded Yeonpyeong Island.

Indonesia Buying 16 S Korean T-50 Trainers

Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) signed a $400 million deal to sell 16 T-50 Golden Eagle supersonic trainer aircraft to Indonesia, marking the first overseas sale of the $20 million jet co-developed by Lockheed Martin.

The deal obligates South Korea to buy Indonesian-built CN-235 transport airplanes, Seoul and Jakarta government officials confirmed.

Officials with KAI and the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) officials had denied that the trainer deal would require the airlifter purchase.

The contract was signed May 25, about a month and a half after Jakarta picked KAI as the preferred bidder for its trainer jet acquisition. The T-50 beat out Russia's Yak-130 and the Czech L-159B.

KAI is set to deliver the jets to the Indonesian Air Force by 2013.

The day after the T-50 announcement, KAI received approval from the Korea Exchange to proceed with an initial public offering (IPO) estimated to be worth about 576 billion won ($523 million).

The state-owned Korea Finance Corp. owns 30.1 percent of the aircraft maker, while Samsung Techwin, Hyundai Motor and Doosan Infracore hold 20.5 percent apiece.

The IPO may be held by the end of June.

Industry and securities sources expect KAI to sell 36 million shares at 14,000 won to 16,000 apiece.

"I'm very happy that the deal has been concluded before the planned IPO," said KAI President Kim Hong-kyung. "This Indonesia deal is just the starting point for the country's aircraft exports. As the leading aerospace company in South Korea, we will make best efforts to help the country become the world's top seven aircraft exporters by 2020."

South Korea will become the sixth country to export supersonic jets, following the U.S., Russia, the U.K., France and Sweden, according to a KAI-DAPA news release.

The single-engine T-50 plane has digital flight controls and a modern, ground-based training system. It is designed to have the maneuverability, endurance and systems to prepare pilots to fly next-generation aircraft such as the Eurofighter Typhoon, the F-22 Raptor and the F-35 Lightning II. The jet has a top speed of Mach 1.4 and an operational range of 1,851 kilometers.

The news of the offset provision confirmed what Amir Sambodo, special staff for the Indonesian Coordinating Economic Minister told the Jakarta Post on May 20: "There have been talks that if Indonesia buys T-50s, there will be compensation for Korea to purchase CN-235s."

Sambodo said South Korea would buy two or four more CN-235s.

"This needs to be increased to mutually benefit both countries. If South Korea is good at trainer jets, we are strong in transport aircraft," he said.

Seoul and Jakarta had a similar barter trade deal in 2001, when South Korea bought eight CN-235 transport planes in return for selling 12 KT-1 Woongbi basic trainers.

The CN-235 is a medium-range twin-turboprop airplane, jointly developed by Spain's CASA and Indonesia's PT DI. The plane is used for VIP transport, maritime patrols, airlifts and troop carrying.

South Korea has 20 CN-235s, 12 built in Spain and eight in Indonesia. Under a 2008 deal, PT DI plans to deliver four more CN-235s to South Korea's Coast Guard by year's end.

Recently this year Korea roled out the new armed version of  its T-50 supersonic trainer aircraft, designed to carry out entry-level tactical training missions, according to the state military acquisition agency.The armed variant of the T-50, the nation’s first homegrown trainer jet, is intended to train fledgling military pilots on air-to-air and air-to-surface missions before their full operational deployment, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration said.

The TA-50 can mount precision-guided weapons such as AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles and TGM-65 Maverick air-to-ground missiles, according to DAPA officials.

The final unit of the TA-50 will be delivered by 2012. DAPA officials refuse to confirm the total number of the TA-50s to be put into operation, citing security reasons.

From 2013, the country will also begin deploying a more heavily armed version of the TA-50. Named the FA-50, the multi-role fighter jet is designed for light attack combat missions, officials said.

Jointly developed by Korea Aerospace Industries, the country’s sole aircraft maker, and U.S. defense giant Lockheed Martin, South Korea unveiled the T-50 “Golden Eagle” in 2005.

In order to strengthen aerial defense capabilities and develop the local aviation industry, the country has spent 2.2 trillion won ($1.96 billion) on the T-50 project over eight years, starting in 1997.

After the first T-50 was delivered in December 2005, the Air Force began training with the T-50 in April 2007. The T-50 has a maximum speed of mach 1.5, with a maximum range of 800 nautical miles.