Defense Ministry website hit by DDoS attack

South Korea's Ministry of National Defense website was hit by a cyberattack, the ministry confirmed Wednesday.

A screen capture of the Ministry of National Defense website buffering amid a DDoS attack. [YONHAP]

South Korea's Ministry of National Defense website was hit by a cyberattack, the ministry confirmed Wednesday.

The Defense Ministry said a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack was launched on its homepage starting around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The military said it immediately responded and the Defense Ministry website is currently operating normally.

Access to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) website was also unstable Wednesday morning, and the military said the Cyber Operations Command and related agencies are checking whether a DDoS attack is in progress.

A DDoS attack occurs when hackers crash a webpage by flooding the servers that run the site with excessive traffic, overwhelming its connection bandwidth and crowding out normal users.

The Defense Ministry is working on identifying who was behind the DDoS attack.

On Monday, the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) warned local organizations and businesses of a rising risk of cyberattacks related to North Korea's troop dispatch to Russia.

It warned that South Korean organizations face increased cybersecurity risks, including DDoS attacks, amid the Russia-Ukraine war.

This hinted at the possibility that there could be cyberattacks made against South Korean agencies and entities originating from Russia or North Korea.

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]