S. Korea probes threats of hacking on nuke reactors

By Agencies in Seoul | China Daily | Updated: 2014-12-23 07:53

South Korean prosecutors have been looking into threats of another attack on the country's nuclear reactors as a hacker, who identified himself as president of an anti-nuclear group in Hawaii, demanded the shutdown of three reactors in the country, local media reported on Monday.

On Sunday the hacker revealed internal documents, taken from Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power, the state-run nuclear plant operator, on a Twitter account.

Prosecutors reportedly asked US authorities for assistance, since the Twitter account is registered in the United States.

Documents posted on the Internet included floor plans of some reactors' air cooling systems, an open program to build a reactor core and a calculator program for nuclear reactors.

It marked the fourth such posting since Dec 15, when the hacker leaked personal information on about 10,000 employees of KHNP. On Friday, the hacker called for the shutdown of Gori-1, Gori-3 and Wolsong-2 nuclear reactors in southeast South Korea for three months beginning on Dec 25.

South Korea's energy ministry said it was confident that its nuclear plants could block any infiltration by cyberattackers that could compromise the safety of the reactors.

"It's our judgment that the control system itself is designed in such a way that there is no risk whatsoever," said Chung Yang-ho, deputy energy minister.

The hacker threatened to leak about 100,000 pages of internal documents that have not been disclosed unless the three reactors are closed down by Christmas, and threatened another hacking attack on nuclear reactors.

The Nuclear Safety and Security Commission and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said on Sunday in a joint statement that cyberattacks on nuclear reactors would be impossible because reactor-control networks are run completely separate from the outside.

The KHNP, which operates 23 nuclear reactors that generate about 30 percent of the country's electricity demand, said the leaked documents are neither confidential nor related to core technologies.

"You say these are not confidential material," the hacker said in the posting. "Let's see if you can take responsibility when major blueprints, systems and programs of reactors are revealed."

Xinhua - Reuters