South Korea says PCs could be hit next in Web attack

By Jon Herskovitz

SEOUL (Reuters) - Cyber attacks slowing U.S. and South Korean websites could enter a new phase Friday by attacking personal computers and wiping out hard disks, a South Korean government agency and web security firm said.

North Korea was originally a prime suspect for launching the cyber attacks, but the isolated state was not named on a list of websites from five countries where the attacks may have originated, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) said.

The attacks targeting dozens of government and business sites in South Korea and the United States did not cause major damage or security breaches, experts said, but the KCC warned a new phase at 4 p.m. British time Friday could cause severe damage to PCs.

Leading South Korean web security firm Ahnlab, which has closely examined the attacks, said the new phase would target data on tens of thousands of infected personal computers.

"The affected computers will not be able to boot and their storage files will be disabled," said Lee Byung-cheol of Ahnlab.

Almost all of the websites that were out of service this week, including the South's Defence Ministry, were up and running while Lee said the damage to Internet locations was dwindling due to better safeguards.

FIVE COUNTRIES NAMED

The KCC said host websites believed behind the original attacks were based in Germany, Austria, Georgia, the United States and South Korea. The location of the hackers behind the attacks was still unknown, it said.