South Korea's military computer networks have been under siege by ever-increasing cyber attacks, with the military countering a daily average of nearly 100,000 hacking attempts or virus infections, a lawmaker said Friday.
The average daily number of cyber attacks against military computers rose to 93,720 cases last year, from 79,022 in 2008, 39,859 in 2007 and 29,681 in 2006, said Rep. Kim Ock-lee of the ruling Grand National Party in a report, citing data from the defense ministry.
In the first six months of this year, the military reported an average number of 44,263 such cases per day, according to the report.
Despite the growing cyber threats, the military had raised its alert status on cyber warfare readiness, called "Infocon," only two times over the past three years, Kim said in the report, raising questions over the military's readiness on cyber security.
"Though North Korea is known to operate some 600 or 700 professional hackers, the military has been negligent in coping with cyber warfare," Kim
said.
Military sources say North Korea is running a cyber warfare unit aimed at hacking into South Korean and U.S. military computer networks to steal intelligence information or disrupt service.
The two Koreas are still technically at war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with a truce, not a peace treaty.