North Korean hackers are believed to have stolen classified military documents from a South Korean company responsible for building warships and submarines.
Carried out against Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. several months ago, the hack, revealed this week by South Korean lawmaker Kyeong Dae-soo, resulted in the theft of more than 60 classified documents.
Specific material stolen during the breach includes technical specifications and blueprints for both submarines and vessels utilizing American-made naval weapons systems.
“Some of the leaked information in the Daewoo attack,” The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, “pertains to South Korea’s submarine-launched missile technology and advanced Aegis weapons systems that track and destroy multiple targets…”
According to Kyeong, the South Korean military traced the attack back to Pyongyang after a six month investigation.
Defense sources speaking with the Journal stated the hackers were able to access the data due to Daewoo’s failure to properly segment its intranet from the public internet.
News of the hack comes just weeks after Pyongyang’s hackers were accused of stealing top-secret military documents from South Korea’s Defense Ministry.
Secret files concerning the U.S. and South Korean military strategy for a full-scale war on the Korean Peninsula, which included details on decapitation operations against top North Korean leaders, were among the documents stolen.
Other documents surrounding military instillations, power plants and details on Washington and Seoul’s military drills and personnel, were also pilfered.
Similar to Daewoo, the South Korean Defense Ministry was compromised after Pyongyang discovered its intranet was exposed.
The British government last week accused Pyongyang of being behind the WannaCry ransomware attack which crippled more than 300,000 computers in 150 countries.
The South Korean government believes North Korea currently employs more than 6,800 hackers to carry out attacks from locations within countries such as China.
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