North Korea has likely hacked Daewoo Shipbuilding, taking a significant number of warship blueprints, according to South Korean opposition lawmaker Kyung Dae-soo.
Kyung told Reuters that he was "almost 100% certain that North Korean hackers were behind the hacking,” adding that the classified military documents that were taken include blueprints for an Aegis-class vessel and submarines.
He said that South Korea's Ministry of Defence uncovered the incident, but that he wasn’t briefed on the attack vector. However, he revealed that the cybercrime division did say that the heist has the North’s digital fingerprints all over it, being carried out using a tried-and-true method known to be used by the country.
Meanwhile, Daewoo Shipbuilding said that it is in the process of confirming the hack.
North Korea has been busy of late when it comes to government targets. In October, reports surfaced that the DPRK had plans to hack the American power grid in a spear phishing gambit. Emails containing fake invitations to a fundraiser delivered malware in the form of attachments—however, the attack was ultimately unsuccessful and no disruptions were logged.
Also in October, a South Korean lawmaker said that in that instance, hackers from North Korea stole a large cache of military documents from South Korea in September last year, including a plan to assassinate Kim Jong-un, wartime contingency plans developed with the US, plans for the South's special forces and information on significant power plants and military facilities.
Meanwhile, British authorities said last week that North Korea was responsible for the devastating WannaCry ransomware attack that hit hundreds of thousands of victims in May, including over a third of NHS trusts in England.