There are concerns that last Saturday's cyber attack on the Joongang Ilbo was conducted by North Korea, notably due to numerous threats issued against the South Korean media by the North in advance.

According to experts, the purpose of the hacking was to destroy the company’s server in the hope of stopping the publication of the newspaper, something that is in contrast to the “mere” disruption of a conventional DDoS attack.

The hacking is now being investigated by the Cyber Terror Response Center and Korea Internet Security Agency, which is trying to figure out the pathway of attack and hasn’t ruled out North Korean involvement.

North Korea previously carried out two cyber attacks targeting government agency websites in 2009, causing the websites to go down but not doing serious lasting damage.

Also in April of last year, North Korea is alleged to have hacked the network of Nonghyup, paralyzing banking and ATM services. The Nonghyup hacking was a higher level attack, conducted by infecting the central system.

If the Joongang Ilbo hacking is found to have been North Korea’s doing then it would not be surprising; cyber terror makes it hard to figure out organizational structures and carries limited investment costs, making it perfect for North Korea.

Yoo Dong Yeol, a senior researcher with the Police Science Institute explained to Daily NK, “The results of the hacking case have not been revealed yet, but North Korea recently mentioned special revolutionary armed action against central news outlets. North Korea’s cyber-terror capabilities surpass those of the CIA and therefore the Joongang Ilbo hacking would not be that difficult for them to do.”

Moreover, he went on, “South Korea is a major IT powerhouse, and most of the people handle things online. North Korea therefore is focused on cyber terror activities because it is low cost, highly efficient and we are not able to determine the origin of the provocation.”