海角大神

鈥� A daily summary of global reports on security issues.

As the Korean Peninsula awoke to commemorate the 63^rd anniversary of the start of the Korean War today, major government and media websites in both North and South Korea appeared to be under electronic attack.

Seoul said it was investigating cyber attacks on the websites for the presidential Blue House, prime minister鈥檚 office, and a handful of major media organizations. The South Korean intelligence service is also of some North Korean sites was due to being hacked, reports The Associated Press.

According to South Korea's Arirang News, a message referring to North Korean president appeared on screens in Seoul鈥檚 presidential office this morning:

It is unclear who is responsible for these attacks and if they are linked. The hacker group 鈥淎nonymous鈥� has warned that it , specifically citing today鈥檚 date, reports The New York Times.

Less than 1 percent of North Koreans have access to the Internet.

There are reports of Twitter users claiming responsibility for the attacks in the South today, 鈥渄emanding that the Seoul government stop censoring Internet content and that its intelligence agency apologize for a recent political scandal in which government intelligence agents were accused of engaging in an online campaign to attack opposition candidates ahead of the Dec. 19, presidential election,鈥� reports the Times.

Earlier this year a much more serious breach of Internet security in South Korea took down an estimated 48,000 computers and servers at banks and media institutions. Some banks were hamstrung for up to five days. North Korea was accused of being behind the cyber attack, the seventh such accusation from the South since 2008.

鈥淐yber attacks are much easier weapons for North Korea as they cost far less than missiles or nuclear tests, but they can send more people into a real panic,鈥� Park Choon Sik, a Seoul Women鈥檚 University professor of , told Bloomberg at the time.

This last attack, in March, came just weeks after the United Nations slapped North Korea with renewed sanctions for conducting nuclear tests. Tensions heightened on the peninsula as a military hotline connecting the two countries was cut off, threats were made to close an important shared industrial complex, and North Korea warned of severing the Korean War armistice. The rhetoric of war went so far as to implicate a potential nuclear attack on various US cities.

According to 海角大神鈥檚 correspondent in Seoul:

For all its bombast, North Korea may actually be聽reluctant to enter into a military conflict with the South and its US allies because of the alliance鈥檚 superior military strength. But cyberattacks can be harmful, create a climate of fear, and avoid any direct consequences.聽聽聽

This type of attack suits North Korea.

鈥淐yberwar is right up their street. It鈥檚 cheap and deniable,鈥� says Aidan Foster Carter, a Korea expert at the University of Leeds.

South Korea may also have than North Korea if 鈥渢he inter-Korean conflict were to move into cyberspace,鈥� reports a separate AP story. There are more Internet connections than there are people in South Korea, according to 2012 OECD data.

鈥淢any daily tasks [in South Korea] are performed online, from banking and the purchasing of movie or train tickets to social interactions. As such, South Koreans have a lot to lose from a malicious attack on the country鈥檚 IT infrastructure,鈥� according to the Monitor.聽

Tens of thousands of people gathered in Kim Il-sung Square in North Korea鈥檚 capital to commemorate the start of the three-year-long Korean War and protest the United States today, according to AP. Thousands gathered in South Korea to mark the date, with military drills taking place near the demilitarized zone between the two countries, as well.聽