Dangerous Spillage
A hacker that had leaked data belonging to the country’s state-run nuclear operator last December made another threat on Thursday. Demanding money in exchange for not derailing those plans by selling sensitive information to third parties, he posted documents that appear to be partial blueprints of South Korea’s indigenous advanced atomic reactor 1400 to the same Twitter account. The files include the schematic for the hot water system for the Kori No. 1 and No. 2 reactors, and other documents with less obvious identification.
Officials from Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. (KHNP) are still waiting to analyze the posted data, saying that they have not yet been able to determine the nature or sensitivity of the released documents, as safety protocols were blocking the downloading or opening of the files.
The hacker posted “Need money. Only need to meet some demands... Potential buyers from Northern Europe, Southeast Asia, and South America are saying they will buy nuclear reactor information. If we sell all of this data, we’re afraid that it may undermine President Park Geun-hye’s plan to export nuclear reactors,” using an account named "president of anti-nuclear reactor group from Hawaii." However, he did not mention how much money he wanted, but warned that South Korea will lose much more if it denies him.
The latest threat seems to target President Park Geun-hye’s recent achievement of her visit to the Middle East, where Korea reached agreements to build two nuclear reactors in Saudi Arabia and to jointly export nuclear reactors with the U.A.E.
Last December, the hacker demanded the shutdown of three nuclear facilities in South Korea within the given deadline, warning people living nearby to avoid the area. But it passed without any incident. Nevertheless, the nuclear plant operator said that it would set up a committee of internal and external experts to oversee security, increasing the number of staff devoted to cyber security from 53 to around 70. It was also reported that South Korea had investigated the possible involvement of North Korea in the cyber attack.