Cyberattacks hit U.S. and South Korean Web sites

South Korea's spy service has reportedly implicated North Korean groups in the attacks on government agencies.
(From The New York Times)

The story "Cyberattacks hit U.S. and South Korean Web sites" published July 8, 2009 at 5:50 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

Content from The New York Times expires after 7 days.

[gertruded]

These must be 22,000 Linux computers because Windows machines do not get infected with viruses.

[fait333]

That's the funniest thing I've read all day.

[dlh2009]

I think major computer security companies need to find a way to protect US sites from getting attacked by people outside the US. A filtering system should be placed.

[gertruded]

Maybe MS should just fix Windows.

[gertruded]

Maybe MS should just fix Windows.

[Been_there_Saw_it_before]

Maybe the US should just fix MS.

[aawindoze2]

I think its about high time someone go knock those crazies off their pedistals in N Korea, enough is enough!

RT
www.anonymize.tk

[moviegeek65]

Why am I hearing about this important story four days later?
Oh that's right we had more important news like the Jacko circus.

[j-a-lind]

It was just a matter of time . . . not "if" but "when" . . . and I'm not at all surprised . . . including by some of the Lameness I read in this article:

1. South Korea has been notorious for pirated WinXP users who cannot or will not update their O/S with security fixes (same goes for M$ Office). From January this year, right here on cnet News:
http://news.cnet.com/About-South-Koreas-dependency-on-Microsoft/2010-1014_3-6153862.html

2. After a machine is already a zombie in a BotNet, it's highly unlikely any effort to "upgrade" or "update" its A-V software will succeed, nor will attempts to update Windoze. Those are the first things that get shut down and blocked off in the "zombified" machines. Most BotNets use rootkits now, and getting rid of one is daunting (been there, done that . . . son of a friend's machine . . . took days of concerted effort to fully eradicate the rootkit). The real solution is nuking all the machines drives, wiping out all partitions, redoing the master boot record (MBR), and reinstalling everything from scratch (from *clean* CDs/DVDs with *legit* O/S & software). Kiss all legacy data bye-bye. Too late for the zombified.

3. Update/upgrade of A-V software and O/S isn't sufficient either. There are too many other ways to vector a rootkit into a machine . . . update/upgrade of Adobe Reader, other browsers (e.g. Opera, Firefox . . .), Adobe Flash, Apple Quicktime, M$ Office, OpenOffice, and Java is just as crucial (just to name a few common ones). How many folks keep *all* that stuff continuously updated?

Not just M$ fixing Windoze . . . lots of others need to get their act together . . . or this *will* continue to occur . . . indeed, given human behavior, I predict it will recur with regularity, and without a cure . . . not until someone comes up with a foolproof, surefire method to change human behavior that has remained unchanged since time immemorial.

[jollymonsing]

Our site, mynewplace.com also got hit with a DDOS on Sunday. worked with Krypt to shut down the international IP.

http://www.mynewplace.com/blog/2009/07/08/cia-white-house-and-mynewplace-attacked-by-cyber-terrorists/

[PrivettP]

Most people I know keep the software updated. There is also software that can be pirated that can be updated ... Not me. I'm also staying with XP Pro. At this time, neither Vista or Windows 7 provides me additional functionality. Nothing I do is that demanding and regardless of What processor I have, all the software is 32 bit.