Hackers steal South Korean-US military secrets

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - South Korea’s military says a suspected cyber attack that netted top secret defense plans may have been carried out by North Korea.

As said by a Defense Ministry spokesman, the suspected hacking occurred late last month. He says a South Korean officer failed to remove a USB device when he switched a military computer from a restricted-access intranet to the Internet. The USB device is said to have contained an outline of plans for military operations by South Korean and U.S. troops in case of war on the Korean peninsula.

Defense Ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae said the stolen document was not a complete text of the operational plans, but an 11 page file used to brief military officials. He said it did not hold any critical information.

Authorities have not ruled out the possibility that Pyongyang may have used a Chinese IP address—the Web equivalent of a street address or phone number.

The most recent case comes months after hackers launched high-profile cyber attacks on prominent government-run sites in the U.S. and South Korea.