Chinese hackers predict cyber attack on South Korea as THAAD system installed
A group of Chinese hackers known as the Hong Kong Confederation, are predicting a full-scale cyber attack on unspecified targets in South Korea to protest the deployment of the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) anti-ballistic missile system. The system, designed by the US Army is used to shoot down short and intermediate range missiles, in this case potentially coming from North Korea, although the system has been installed in a number of US locations and in a number of Middle Eastern countries.
China has been quite vocal in its opposition to the system’s installation in South Korea, but not because they are worried about Chinese missiles being shot down by the system. In fact, THAAD shoots missiles down in their terminal phase, meaning as they are approaching their target and is not a long-range defense system, however the tracking system that is part of THAAD is what bothers the Chinese government. They are concerned that the data produced by the system on Chinese missile launches will give the US and its allies a ‘detection’ advantage, however similar systems in Guam and Japan have been in operation, and the addition of the systems in South Korea would add only marginally different information.
That said, THAAD has become a rallying cry in China, and unfortunately a diplomatic sticking point in negotiations between the US, China, South Korea, and North Korea, as can be seen by the entry of Chinese hackers into the fray under the guise of nationalistic ‘defense’. The hacker group put out a request on their website for additional hackers to join them saying “Lets join the attack on Korean sites to defend the country”, and set the attack to begin ‘earlier than the 24th and before 7:30PM on the 31st’. The hacker group, also known as the Red Hackers, applies a DDoS[1] attack on Japanese websites each year on Manchuria Incident Day (September 18) to protest the 1931 Japanese takeover of the Chinese Manchurian province, but rarely publicly recruits participants or sets dates for attacks.
[1] DDoS – Distributed Denial of Service
China has been quite vocal in its opposition to the system’s installation in South Korea, but not because they are worried about Chinese missiles being shot down by the system. In fact, THAAD shoots missiles down in their terminal phase, meaning as they are approaching their target and is not a long-range defense system, however the tracking system that is part of THAAD is what bothers the Chinese government. They are concerned that the data produced by the system on Chinese missile launches will give the US and its allies a ‘detection’ advantage, however similar systems in Guam and Japan have been in operation, and the addition of the systems in South Korea would add only marginally different information.
That said, THAAD has become a rallying cry in China, and unfortunately a diplomatic sticking point in negotiations between the US, China, South Korea, and North Korea, as can be seen by the entry of Chinese hackers into the fray under the guise of nationalistic ‘defense’. The hacker group put out a request on their website for additional hackers to join them saying “Lets join the attack on Korean sites to defend the country”, and set the attack to begin ‘earlier than the 24th and before 7:30PM on the 31st’. The hacker group, also known as the Red Hackers, applies a DDoS[1] attack on Japanese websites each year on Manchuria Incident Day (September 18) to protest the 1931 Japanese takeover of the Chinese Manchurian province, but rarely publicly recruits participants or sets dates for attacks.
[1] DDoS – Distributed Denial of Service
Hong Kong Federation of China Home Page - Source: daum.net
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