Awwal 29, 1432 H/March 4, 2011, SPA -- Hackers attacked about 40 South Korean government and private websites Friday, prompting officials to warn of a substantial threat to the country's computers, as AP reported. The South's National Cyber Security Center said they had seen signs of a «denial of service» attack, in which large numbers of computers try to connect to a site at the same time in an attempt to overwhelm the server. A top South Korean cybersecurity company, AhnLab, said in a statement that the targets included websites at South Korea's presidential office, the Foreign Ministry, the National Intelligence Service, U.S. Forces Korea and some major financial institutions. The Korea Communications Commission said websites had reported no immediate damage. AhnLab spokesman Park Kun-woo said the attacks were similar to ones that have targeted South Korean websites in the past, in that they were denial of service attacks and largely targeted the same sites. AhnLab said a computer user discovered a bug in their system Thursday night. After analyzing it, AhnLab found malicious software designed to attack websites and told the targets in advance so that they could prepare. As a result, Park said, there had only been a brief slowing of some of the websites.
