South Korea suffered a cyberattack scale

Computer networks of channels and banks are paralyzed. In the current climate of tension between the two Koreas, Pyongyang Seoul suspected to be the origin of the cyber attack.

Scenes of panic in the newsrooms of South Korean television. Since the beginning of the afternoon in Seoul (6:10 French time), the computer system of the main broadcasters of South Korea as well as two of the largest banks in the country are mysteriously paralyzed. Blocking a cyber attack raises fears of North Korea, in full escalation of tensions on the peninsula. The South Korean government says that malware is responsible for the paralysis of network and off several online sites, but it is not able to determine the origin time.

"Our 500 computers are blocked at once, and since then an error message bar displays. It is impossible to revive, "says Le Figaro Choi Jung-yoon, a journalist with the news channel YTN. Same punishment for journalists public broadcasters KBS and MBC of their private competitor. Shinhan bank branches, partners of BNP Paribas, and Nonghyup, two of the most popular countries are also paralyzed. All of these companies use the same server LG Uplus denouncing operation of large-scale hacking.

The army on the alert

The presidential palace was immediately launched an investigation to try to determine the cause of the blockage. The military has raised its alert level computer and remains on the alert in full military exercise Key Resolve, conducted jointly with U.S. forces. If no formal charges have been launched, all the suspicions turn to Pyongyang. "Everything suggests that this is orchestrated by North Korea," said Choi.

Since January, the regime of Kim Jong-un has increased threats, promising to conduct "special actions" against Seoul. And last week, the North Korean regime has accused its rival South and the United States have led to a cyber attack against him.

In recent years, several banks and South Korean companies have suffered massive piracy and Seoul has regularly accused the North of being responsible. Charges denied by the North and difficult to confirm by computer experts.

Cyber ​​warfare has become a key challenge for the latent confrontation between the two Koreas rivals.NIS, services South Korean intelligence has even set up a "situation room" in crisis headquarters to deal with a cyber attack from the North. Seoul's spies believe that the North Korean regime has greatly strengthened its computer attacks in recent years through the creation of a specialized unit of thousands of hackers. Efforts would have directly supervised the young Kim Jong-un, heir while learning, according to Ha Tae Kyung, Parliamentary Conservative Party to power Saenuri. South Korea, home of Samsung and LG, is one of the countries most "addicted" to the Internet in the world and claims to have been 40,000 attacks from outside or within the last year.