Foreign Ministry being hacked a lot by China

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry has seen a sharp rise in attempted hackings from China in 2017 compared to a year earlier, parliamentary sources said Sunday.

A total of 8,263 cases of cyberattacks or attempted hackings were detected in Foreign Ministry servers from January through July, according to data provided to Rep. Park Joo-sun of the People’s Party by the foreign office.

The figure is almost on par with the corresponding number of 8,482 tallied for all of 2016, the lawmaker said.

An analysis of Internet IP addresses that attempted the cyberattacks showed that a considerable portion of them were in China.

The cyberattacks detected from China numbered 4,509, accounting for 75 percent of all attempted cyber penetrations. The percentage has risen sharply from 54.7 percent in 2016.

South Korea and China have locked horns over the deployment of a U.S. antimissile system on the Korean Peninsula.

Beijing says the system threatens its own security interests, while the two allies have said it is only to counter North Korea’s evolving nuclear and missile threats.

Last week, Seoul’s military announced the completion of the stationing of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery, a few days after Pyongyang conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test.

President Moon Jae-in defended the deployment Friday, saying it was an inevitable decision to protect the people and country from a belligerent North Korea.

Yonhap