U.S. officials eye N. Korea in cyber attack
WASHINGTON -- U.S. authorities say they are eyeing North Korea as the origin of the cyber attack that overwhelmed government websites in the United States and South Korea. But they warned it will be difficult to quickly identify the attackers.
Internet addresses have been traced to North Korea, three officials said, but they added that that does not suggest the attack involved the Pyongyang government. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
The Internet attack, which stretched on for days beginning over the July 4 holiday weekend, targeted dozens of government and private sites and underscored how unevenly prepared the U.S. government is to block such assaults.
Targets of the most widespread cyber offensive of recent years also included the National Security Agency, Homeland Security Department and State Department, the Nasdaq stock market and The Washington Post, according to an early analysis of the malicious software used in the attacks.
The cyber assault on the White House site had "absolutely no effect on the White House's day-to-day operations," said spokesman Nick Shapiro.
Preventative measures kept whitehouse.gov "stable and available to the general public," Shapiro said, but Internet visitors from Asia may have experienced problems.
South Korean intelligence officials believe the attacks were carried out by North Korea or pro-Pyongyang forces, but many experts in cyberwarfare said it was simply too early to know where the offensive originated.
Many of the U.S. government targets appear to have successfully blunted the sustained computer assaults. But others, such as the Treasury Department, were knocked off-line at times.
Two government officials acknowledged that Treasury's site was brought down, and said the agency had been working with its Internet service provider to resolve the problem. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the matter.
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