North Korea is suspected of having launched a cyber attack last year on the South Korean capital’s subway system that carries millions of commuters every day, a Seoul lawmaker said on Monday (Oct 5), citing intelligence reports.
The attack, staged between March and August 2014, affected several servers of Seoul Metro, which runs four major subway lines, ruling party legislator Ha Tae Kyung said.
Nearly 60 employee computers were infected by malware, Ha said.
After analysing the hacking records, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) found that the malware codes were similar to those North Korean hackers have employed before, he added.
A Seoul Metro spokesman confirmed the hack, but stressed that computers used for the direct operation of subway lines were not compromised.
“There were data and information leaks, but none related to direct operations,” the spokesman said.
“We still don’t know who was behind the attack,” he added.
Seoul’s subway network is one of the busiest in the world, carrying around 5.25 million passengers a day.
