ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

State telecom regulator says China internet address was source of cyber attack on four TV networks and major bank. South Korea says an initial investigation shows a Chinese internet address was the source of a cyber attack on one of the companies shut down by computer crashes. South Korea's telecom regulator said on Thursday that a Chinese address created the malicious code in the server of one of the banks, Nonghyup, that crashed on Wednesday. Experts say hackers often launch attacks via computers in other countries in an attempt to keep their identities from being exposed. Such addresses can easily be manipulated and disguised. Regulators have distributed vaccine software to government offices, banks, hospitals and other institutions to prevent more outages. The source of the attack is not yet clear. But suspicion has quickly fallen on North Korea. Pyongyang has threatened Seoul with attack in recent days. Media hit South Korea's army raised its alert level after the cyber

Authorities arrest an Iranian, a Lebanese and 16 Saudis accused of being part of "foreign spy network". The Saudi authorities have arrested 18 suspected spies, including an Iranian and a Lebanese, on charges of espionage for a foreign country, the interior ministry said. "Sixteen Saudis, an Iranian and a Lebanese were arrested in co-ordinated and simultaneous operations in four regions of the kingdom," including the capital Riyadh and Mecca, the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. Interior Ministry spokesman Mansour al-Turki told state television that the arrests were made four days ago and the suspects were being investigated before being handed over to judicial authorities. 'Case of espionage' "This is a case of espionage and those have been involved with a spy network working for a foreign country," Turki told state television. "They were gathering information about installations and vital areas in the country and providing intelli

Rockets cause minor damage but no injuries in town of Sderot, Israeli police spokesman says. Two rockets fired from the Gaza Strip have hit southern Israel as US President Barack Obama was making his first official visit to the country in four years, police said. "One exploded in the backyard of a house in Sderot, causing damage and the second landed in a field," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP news agency on Thursday, referring to a town very close to the Gaza border. As a presidential candidate in 2008, Obama visited Sderot, which is frequently targeted by rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip. No group immediately claimed responsibility for Thursday's attack, which came as Obama was in Jerusalem. Obama was expected to travel to Ramallah on Thursday morning for talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas. It was only the second such rocket attack since the end of a deadly eight-day confrontation between Israel and Hamas in November which ended with an Egypt

Warning comes day after Pyongyang condemned training flights of nuclear-armed US bombers as "unpardonable provocation". North Korea has threatened to attack US military bases in Japan in response to the use of nuclear-armed US B-52 bombers in joint military drills with South Korea. The threat on Thursday came a day after Pyongyang condemned the B-52 flights as an "unpardonable provocation" and threatened military action if they continue. "The United States is advised not to forget that our precision target tools have within their range the Anderson Air Force base on Guam where the B-52 takes off, as well as the Japanese mainland where nuclear-powered submarines are deployed and the navy bases on Okinawa," the North Korean command spokesman was quoted by KCNA news agency. The Pentagon confirmed that B-52s, taking off from Andersen Air Force base in Guam, had flown over South Korea as part of annual joint exercises that Pyongyang insist are a rehearsal f

SEOUL, South Korea – CPolice and South Korean officials were investigating the simultaneous shutdown Wednesday of computer networks at several major broadcasters and banks. While the cause wasn't immediately clear, speculation centered on a possible North Korean cyberattack. The shutdown came days after North Korea blamed South Korea and the United States for cyberattacks that temporarily shut down websites in Pyongyang. Officials at the two South Korean public broadcasters KBS and MBC said that all computers at their companies shut down at 2 p.m. The officials said the shutdown was not immediately causing any damage to their daily TV broadcasts. The officials declined to give their names saying they were not authorized to speak media. YTN cable news channel reported the company's internal computer network was completely paralyzed. Local TV showed workers staring at blank computer screens, and at one coffee shop employees asked for cash, saying their credit card machi

At least 26 people were killed by a rocket blast in the Syrian city of Aleppo, according to a human rights group, while both the Assad regime and rebels are pointing fingers at each other for the attack. Both sides say chemical weapons were used, but the claims are being disputed. White House spokesman Jay Carney said there is no evidence that Syrian rebels used chemical weapons. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland added there is "no reason to believe the allegations" that chemical weapons had been used, but reiterated that use of such weapons by the Assad regime would constitute a "red line" for the U.S. Rami Abdelrahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told Reuters that 16 Syrian Army soldiers were killed in the explosion, and 10 others died in a local hospital. He did not elaborate whether they were soldiers or civilians. Syrian information minister Omran al-Zoubi said the rocket, fired from Nairab district in Aleppo into Khan al-Assal v

RUSSIA accused Syrian rebels of using chemical weapons in an attack on Tuesday and said it was an extremely alarming and dangerous development. "According to information coming from Damascus, a case of the use of chemical weapons by the armed opposition was recorded early in the morning of March 19 in Aleppo province," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. It did not specify the exact source of information on the deadly attack, which Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government and the rebels blamed on one another. It said the explosion of a piece of ammunition "containing a poisonous substance" killed 16 people and wounded about 100 others. If confirmed, the attack would be the first use of chemical weapons in the two-year-old conflict that has killed more than 70,000 people and set Russia against the West. "We are very seriously concerned by the fact that weapons of mass destruction are falling into the hands of the rebels, which further wors

20 March 2013 The top US military commander in Europe has said that several Nato countries are working on contingency plans for possible military action to end the two-year civil war in Syria. The claim came as President Bashar Assad's regime accused US-backed Syrian rebels of using chemical weapons. The Obama administration rejected the Assad claim as a sign of desperation by a besieged government intent on drawing attention from its war atrocities - some 70,000 dead, more than a million refugees and 2.5 million people internally displaced. A US official said there was no evidence that either Assad forces or the opposition had used chemical weapons in an attack in northern Syria. As the war enters its third year, the US military, State Department officials and the UN high commissioner for refugees delivered a dire assessment of a deteriorating situation in Syria and the sober view that even if Assad leaves, the Middle East nation could slip into civil strife similar t