Government Warns of State-Sponsored Hacking Threats

The government has issued a warning regarding phishing emails and watering hole attacks (a method of hacking specific websites to infect visitors) orchestrated by state-sponsored hacking groups. This announcement was prepared by the National Intelligence Service, the National Police Agency, the Korea Internet & Security Agency, the Korea Financial Security Institute, and a public-private joint analysis consortium (AhnLab, S2W, NKI Whitehat, Plainbit) to warn of cyber attack threats and recommend attack types and mitigation measures to minimize public damage.

State-sponsored hacking groups are continuously launching attacks by sending phishing emails disguised as resumes or job offers, or by hacking into small websites with insufficient security, such as internet news and hospital sites, to use them as a platform for spreading malware. The hacking groups employ tactics such as attaching malicious links or files to emails disguised as job applications or donations, or embedding links to already hacked legitimate websites in the email body to induce unsuspecting clicks. In particular, watering hole attacks, which hide malware on legitimate websites and infect users simply by accessing them, are even more dangerous when combined with vulnerabilities in outdated security software.

For corporations, such attacks can lead to the leakage of internal documents, customer information, and sales materials to the outside, potentially resulting in ransomware demands, requiring extreme caution. The relevant agencies have urged immediate reporting of suspected cyber threats and similar cases, and are currently operating a reward system for reporting.