Computerworld: A new report from security vendor McAfee with help from the S. Korean and U.S. governments says that a group of denial-of-service attacks on S. Korean websites in March were almost certainly the work of the N. Korean government or its allies. The report authors believe the attacks were designed to test N. Korea’s cyberattack defense and response capabilities and that they could be a prelude to much larger attacks. “It was to test the response of the South Korean government,” said Dmitri Alperovitch. “When you look at who might do that, one actor jumps off the page. The North Korean government would want to see if a future conflict could have a cyber impact as well as a real-life impact.”
The report also found parallels between this most recent set of attacks and other attacks against the S. Korea and the U.S. in 2009.