Police Probe Cyber Attack on Joongang Ilbo

Police are investigating a cyber attack against the Joongang Ilbo daily. The police cyber crimes investigative unit said on Monday that it had received a report that the newspaper's website and the intranet journalists use to file stories had been hacked.

The website was attacked at around 6:30 p.m. on Saturday and could not be accessed. Instead, it displayed a photo of a white cat smiling with its mouth covered and a caption that read: "Hacked by IsOne." The daily diverted readers to an alternative site, but the unstable internal network caused problems.

Police believe the hackers carefully planned their attack and planted a malicious code to paralyze the computer network. "This went beyond the antics of a lone hacker on a joyride and involved a carefully planned attack against the server itself," said a police officer. "We are not ruling out the possibility of North Korean cyber terrorism."

Police are focusing their investigation on identifying the attacker while keeping their eyes open for further attacks against other media.

Meanwhile, North Korea on Monday continued to issue threats against South Korean media including the Chosun Ilbo. State-run Radio Pyongyang said it had "zeroed in" on the coordinates of the Chosun, Joongang and Donga Ilbo dailies, as well as broadcasters KBS, CBS, MBC and SBS and was waiting for the order to "set them ablaze."