By JOOHEE CHO
North Korea's hacking capabilities are "beyond imagination," one former computer expert for the North told ABC News in the wake of Tuesday's report that the nation had stolen secret intelligence documents, including the U.S.-South Korean war strategy.
Secret intelligence documents and photos unilaterally collected by the U.S. military were among the stolen cache of South Korea’s classified documents by North Korean hackers, but the totality of what was stolen remains unknown, according to South Korea’s ruling Democratic Party lawmaker Lee Cheol-hee.
Malware contamination of the intranet server of the cyber command that occurred in September last year was confirmed by the South Korea’s Defense Ministry in May but this is the first glimpse of the scope of the damage.
US-South Korean war plans reportedly stolen by North Korean hackers
The stolen trove totals about 235 gigabytes of data, equivalent to 15 million pages of documents. About 80 percent of the stolen materials have yet to be identified. But among them, Lee said, were U.S.-South Korean plans for a decapitation strike against North Korea to remove Kim Jong Un, as well as classified reconnaissance information collected by the U.S. military shared with the South Koreans.
"The way it got hacked was preposterous," Lee told ABC News. "It wasn't because North Koreans had advanced hacking skills, but was due to negligence on the South Korean part."
http://abcnews.go.com/International/north-koreas-hacking-abilities-imagination-defector/story?id=50408945
