North Korea Suspected in Cyberattack

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TOKYO, July 8 Washington Post -- South Korea's intelligence agency suspects that North Korea may have been behind an Internet attack that on Tuesday and Wednesday targeted government Web sites in South Korea and the United States, lawmakers in Seoul told Yonhap news service.

Twenty-six Internet sites in the two countries, including the office of South Korea's president and the defense ministry, were targeted, the South Korean National Intelligence Service said in a statement. In the United States, the attack targeted Web sites operated by major government agencies, including the departments of Homeland Security and Defense, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Federal Trade Commission, according to several computer security researchers.

"The attacks appear to have been elaborately prepared and executed at the level of a group or a state," reported Yonhap, the South Korean news service. Some members of the intelligence committee in the country's National Assembly were told by intelligence officials that North Korea or its sympathizers were prime suspects in the attacks, according to Yonhap, which cited unnamed legislators.