North Korea suspected in U.S., South Korea web attack

By Tabassum Zakaria

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than two dozen Internet sites in South Korea and the United States, including the White House, were attacked in recent days by hackers that South Korea's spy agency said may be linked to North Korea.

The attacks began on July 4, the U.S. Independence Day holiday, and were widespread, but government websites were now up and running and day-to-day operations at the White House and Pentagon had not been affected, officials said.

U.S. officials also said it was premature to say who was responsible and that these types of Internet attacks happen everyday on government networks.

South Korea's National Intelligence Service said in a statement that an organization and possibly a state were behind the attacks in South Korea, the world's most wired nation, and there were signs of "meticulous preparations" for the act.

South Korean media, including Yonhap news agency, quoted parliament members as saying after an intelligence briefing that the spy agency believed "North Korea or pro-North elements" were behind the attacks that targeted 26 U.S. and South Korean websites.

In the United States, the NASDAQ stock market said its website and business were unaffected by the attack and the White House said all federal websites were "up and running."

The attack on websites had "absolutely no effect" on day-to-day operations at the White House, spokesman Nick Shapiro said.

"The preventative measures in place to deal with frequent attempts to disrupt WhiteHouse.gov's service performed as planned, keeping the site stable and available to the general public, although visitors from regions in Asia may have been affected," he said.