The Seoul Shinmun newspaper disclosed the findings of eight security experts, who claim that it would only take hackers 3 hours to shut down and paralyze South Korea, due to it’s dependence upon a security system called, Scada (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system. This computer network controls all of the South’s financial, stock exchange, airport and road systems, as well as electricity grid connected with nuclear power plants.

Here’s the scenario that the Seoul Shinmun writes: “One day in 2013. Around 6 a.m., the alarm goes off at the reactor No. 3 of the Uljin nuclear power complex in North Gyeongsang Province, and the alarm installed at the nearby reactor No. 4 follows suit. An official hurriedly calls the man in charge of reactors operation after finding that the system to cool the reactors does not work. Workers put lots of boron into the reactors, but their operation stops. Then, a power failure immediately hits all households in the southern part of the country.

Around the same time, POSCO in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, and another major steel maker in Gwangyang, South Jeolla Province, as well as a KORAIL office in Daejeon, the central part of the nation, and subway lines in Seoul go out of control. They do not work under any contingency measures. Workers flee their workplace. The authorities have few choices but to order that operation of railways and subway trains nationwide be stopped.

The government convenes an emergency meeting of Cabinet ministers. Also attending the meeting are officials from the National Intelligence Service and the Korea Internet Security Agency. The military declares a state of emergency. As things, which officials they could see only in films, happen actually, it embarrasses them, who have boasted ‘water-tight security measures.’

After conducting checkups, experts find that all entities hit by the breakdown use the same Scada (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system. They finally conclude that outside forces attacked them under a prepared plot.”

To read the entire article from the Korea Times, link here:

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