21 March, 2013

Chinese IP address behind South Korea hacking

By : Spandas Lui

The hacking attack in South Korea on internet service provider LG Uplus, which crippled several TV broadcasters and banks, originated from an IP address in China, according to South Korean officials. The cyberattack occurred on Wednesday and caused disruptions to TV networks YTN, MBC, and KBS. 

Meanwhile, Shinhan Bank and NongHyup Bank were also affected. During a press conference, a South Korea Communications Commission spokesperson said that the malicious code used for the attack came from an IP address in China, reported Reuters.

A previous cyberattack on South Korea had been traced to North Korea using a Chinese IP address. At the time, North Korea blamed the US for the hacking. South Korea has yet to point fingers at North Korea for the most recent incident. The country had been ramping up its cybersecurity after threats of physical and virtual attacks from its Northern Communist neighbours. 

South Korea's police are still investigating the latest hacking. The US were also victims of an online attack in January on news agencies New York Times and Wall Street Journal. China was blamed for the hacking, but the country denied those accusations.

Spandas forayed into tech journalism in 2009 as a fresh university graduate spurring her passion for all things tech. Based in Australia, Spandas covers enterprise and business IT.

LEAVING MICROSOFT TO CHANGE THE WORLD

LEAVING MICROSOFT TO CHANGE THE WORLD "AN INFECTIOUSLY INSPIRING READ" John J. Wood is the founder and board co-chair of Room to Read, a global non-profit organization focused on literacy and gender equality in education in Asia and Africa that has reached over 6 million children. 

He is also the author of Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur's Odyssey to Educate the World's Children and the children's book Zak the Yak with Books on His Back.

He is a member of the Clinton Global Initiative's Advisory Board and is a frequent lecturer at Harvard's Graduate School of Education and NYU's Stern School of Business.Wood took a vacation from his work at Microsoft in 1998 to trek through the Himalayas.

While trekking, he met a "resource director" for the schools in the Annapurna Circuit of Nepal, with whom he visited a primary school that contained 450 children and only a handful of books—none age-appropriate.

Upon seeing Wood's reaction to the lack of books, the school's headmaster suggested, "Perhaps, sir, you will someday come back with books," which inspired Wood to solicit book donations from family and friends via email sent from an Internet cafe in Kathmandu. 

A year later, Wood returned to the school with 3,000 books—all donated in response to his email appeal to friends and family. Soon thereafter, he left his job at Microsoft entirely to devote himself full-time to Books for Nepal, a side project that would eventually form the foundation for Room to Read. 

Leaving Microsoft was published by Harper Collins in August 2006. It was featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2007, with "Oprah's Book Drive" for Room to Read raising over $3 million.

Leaving Microsoft has been published in 20 languages. It was named one of the Top Ten non-fiction books of 2006 by Hudson's Booksellers and a Top Ten business narrative by Amazon.com. The sequel will be published by Penguin in early 2013.