More Than 1,500 Hacker Attacks a Year on Korean Research

The websites of government-funded science and technology research centers are attacked more than 1,500 times a year by international hackers, it was revealed during the parliamentary audit of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology on Wednesday.

Grand National Party lawmaker Park Young-ah of the Education, Science and Technology Committee, said the number of hacking attacks on 25 science and technology research centers under the government was 1,632 in 2006 and 1,870 in 2007, and 1,277 this year as of July."

According to a report submitted to Park by the Science and Technology Security Center under the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information, attacks by foreign hackers accounted for 64.3 percent of the total with 1,050 cases in 2006, and 60.4 percent in 2007 with 1,129 cases. Between January and July this year, there were 738 attacks from abroad, or 57.8 percent of the total.

The most common route taken by the foreign hackers was servers in China and the United States. Among the attacks from overseas last year, 498 cases or 44.1 percent came from China, and 235 cases or 20.8 percent from the U.S., and 41 cases or 3.6 percent from Brazil. From January to July this year, those from China and the U.S. occupied 60 percent of the total international hacking cases with 331 and 112 cases.