South Korea said Tuesday that North Korea was behind the cyber-attacks and hacking attempts that included online postings of Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Company Ltd. data and demands to shut down nuclear reactors.
The attacks began in December. They included sending malicious codes to Hydro and Nuclear Power Company employee email accounts. Plant data was also posted online, although South Korea says none of the information posted was of critical importance. Last week, the hacker or hackers posted a plant blueprint and test data, Reuters reported.
Korea Hydro and Nuclear power is a state-owned company that runs 23 nuclear reactors. The company said it as not participating in the investigation. Media reports say that there were multiple attempts to steal personnel and plant operations data from the company and various business partners, but investigators said most of the attempts failed and those that were successful did not compromise plant operations.
New data was posted on Twitter earlier this week. Along with the data was a demand for money from the company. Some of the postings have included threats of releasing more of the stolen files.
Previously, South Korea said it suspected North Korea was behind the hacks, which North Korea denies, claiming the accusation is a ploy meant to increase international tension.
But South Korea now says that the attacks come from Internet addresses registered in North Korea.
In addition, attempts to steal compromising data through a cyber-attack technique called phishing used a virus named “kimsuky,” which was created in North Korea, investigators say.
The Twitter postings (called “tweets”) were posted through servers in China and Russia, according to investigators.