SEOUL: South Korea boosted cyber security at the country’s nuclear power plants yesterday following what President Park Geun-hye described as a series “grave” data leaks, and prosecutors said they were investigating a new online threat.
Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co Ltd (KHNP), which runs South Korea’s 23 nuclear power reactors, said on Monday that its computer systems had been hacked, raising alarm in a country that is still technically at war with North Korea. Park ordered inspections of safeguards at national infrastructure facilities, including nuclear power plants, against what she called “cyber terrorism”. A government official said authorities had raised the cyber crisis alert by one level for all the state-run companies to “caution” from “attention”.
The nuclear operator, part of state-run utility Korea Electric Power Corp, said only non-critical data had been stolen and operations of the nuclear plants were not at risk. South Korea’s law enforcement authorities are investigating the leaks.
“Nuclear power plants are first-class security installations that directly impact the safety of the people,” Park said at a cabinet meeting. Within hours of Park’s comments, an online user who claimed to have hacked the nuclear operator posted a new threat and a fresh batch of data on the same Twitter account that was used for previous threats and leaks. “We are now looking at it,” an official at South Korean prosecutors’ office investigating the leaks said. AFP
