Hackers target prosecutors in South Korean corruption scandal

Prosecutors investigating South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong on corruption and bribery charges were targeted by a failed cyberattack, announced The Guardian.

The group of hackers attacked one of the computers that stored evidence in the corruption investigation, but the attack was blocked early on so no data was compromised. The cyberattack came from overseas, according to Korea Times. Prosecutors blame far-right groups.

“The attempt was made through one of our prosecutors” email accounts on Naver, Korea”s largest internet portal,” said an official from the prosecutors” team. “It seems the hacker tried to extract information from the team”s intranet by gaining access to the prosecutor”s account and installing a malicious code in the laptop. The prosecutors were asked not to use intranet and the Internet at the same time, and to be more careful when using individual phones, USB drivers and external data storage devices.”

President Park, impeached in December by the constitutional court, faces questioning in February. Investigators are now also examining Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong who allegedly offered Choi Soon-sil, a close friend of President Park, as much as $36 million in bribes for preferential business endeavors.

“Prosecutors are trying to establish if the money Samsung paid Choi was connected to a 2015 decision by the National Pension Service (NPS) to approve a controversial $8bn merger of two Samsung group affiliates,” The Guardian writes.