Massive DDoS Attack Cripples South Korea’s Defense Site—North Korea or Russia?

On Wednesday, Yonhap News confirmed with the Department of Defense that a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack began around 5:30 p.m. the previous day.

The attack initially affected access to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) website, prompting the Cyber Operations Command to investigate potential DDoS activity. According to the military officials, DDoS countermeasures were activated, allowing the site to remain operational. However, while the Defense Department’s website remains accessible, users have reported slow loading times and intermittent connectivity issues.

A military spokesperson told reporters, “We have blocked the IP addresses associated with the attack. DDoS attacks targeting the Defense Department are uncommon.” The department is currently focusing its efforts on identifying those responsible for the cyber attack.

This event follows a warning from the Korea Internet & Security Agency on October 1, which alerted organizations to increased cyber threats due to the alleged deployment of North Korean troops to Russia. They advised bolstering security measures against potential DDoS attacks from Russian hacking groups. In light of this, speculation has arisen that the attack may be linked to either Russia or North Korea.

The DDoS hacking attack overwhelms a target system by flooding it with massive traffic, disrupting standard data transmission, and crashing web services.