[ISN] Web sites hosted by S. Korea's leading internet portal hacked

[InfoSec News]

http://english.yna.co.kr/Engnews/20050913/660000000020050913214344E8.html

2005/09/13 

SEOUL, Sept. 13 (Yonhap) -- Unidentified computer hackers have
attacked a score of Web sites hosted by Daum Communications Corp.,
South Korea's second most-popular Internet portal, causing a barrage
of spam e-mail to their members, a computer security company said
Tuesday.

Multiple spam e-mails were simultaneously sent to members of some 20
community service Web sites hosted by Daum after the attacks the
previous day, Geot said.

The number of computer users affected by the hacking incident is
estimated at several millions, as most of the Web sites that were
hacked claim hundreds of thousands of members each.

Daum said its computer servers were not affected and the chances are
the hackers secured lists of e-mail addresses by attacking the
personal computers of the Web sites' administrators.

However, Geot said it cannot rule out the possibility the hackers
attacked the Internet portal's computer system directly as only the
Web sites with the largest number of members were attacked.

Police computer forensics experts are currently investigating the
circumstances behind the mass dissemination of spam e-mails, the two
companies said.