Pro-Kremlin hacktivist group targets South Korea with DDoS

The South Korean government has released a warning regarding Russian-linked cyberattacks on its country, especially DDoS campaigns, after the North Korean military forces joined the Russia-Ukraine geopolitical conflict.

The alert claimed that the Russian-linked cyberattacks on the country have increased since North Korean troops were deployed in Ukraine. Pro-Kremlin groups have mainly conducted distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on South Korean government websites and private firms, to which the Seoul administration is aggressively responding.

Moreover, the President’s Office stated that the attacks have briefly delayed or blocked off access to several institutions’ websites, but no additional harm has been reported. The warning also noted that the cyberattacks by pro-Russian hacktivist organisations against South Korea have been recurrent in the past.

However, these particular incidents have surged after the North Korean government deployed its military forces to Ukraine to aid Russia in the Ukraine conflict. The Ukrainian president has also confirmed the deployment of North Korean troops on Russian territory near the Ukrainian border.

The president also added that some of these troops had already engaged in combat operations against the Ukrainian military.

 

South Korea has immediately held an emergency meeting after the spike in cyber and DDoS attacks against its entities.

 

The South Korean Presidential Office’s statement came after an emergency review of the increased attacks by pro-Russian cybercriminal groups, especially DDoS.

As a result of the increased threat, the government has urged its private and government agencies to fortify their cybersecurity preparedness to counteract the increased aggression of Russian-affiliated hackers.

Furthermore, the National Cyber Crisis Management Team of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) is now monitoring the activities of pro-Russian hacktivists and sharing information with relevant institutions. South Korea expects such attacks to continue as the war in Ukraine progresses.

In recent years, security researchers have seen increased overlap between hacktivist groups, financially motivated cybercrime, and nation-backed operations. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, hacktivist activity has surged dramatically, allowing numerous hacking groups to appear as hacktivist factions that allegedly support the Russian government.