Pro-Russia Hackers Ramp Up Cyber Attacks on South Korea, Presidential Office Says

Pro-Russia hacking groups have ramped up attacks against South Korea amid North Korean troop deployments in Russia, South Korea’s presidential office said Friday.

Authorities in Seoul said they have convened an emergency meeting due to recent attacks targeting some government and private websites. No major damage has been reported, aside from temporary outages, South Korea’s presidential office said.

“Cyber attacks by pro-Russian hacktivist groups against our country have occurred sporadically in the past,” South Korea’s presidential office said in a statement. “But they have become more frequent following North Korea’s deployment of troops to Russia and its participation in the war in Ukraine.”

Officials did not reveal the names of the hacking groups but said the South Korean government will enhance its capabilities to respond to such attacks.

Seoul’s announcement comes a month after Washington announced the seizure of 41 internet domains allegedly used by Russian intelligence agents trying to gain access to the computers and email accounts at the Pentagon.

Germany’s domestic intelligence agency also warned in September against a cyber group linked to Russian military intelligence that it said had launched attacks in Ukraine and NATO member states.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said around 11,000 North Korean troops were sent to Russia’s western Kursk region, where they already sustained “losses.”

South Korea, a major arms exporter, has a long-standing policy of not providing weapons to countries in conflict.

But President Yoon Suk Yeol said this week that Seoul may no longer rule out the possibility of providing weapons directly to Ukraine given Pyongyang’s military support of Moscow.