Cyber-attack is an ever-present threat that can result in major damage to government and business web sites, as the following examples show. U.S. and South Korea, 2009: Officials in both countries reported attacks in the summer, aimed mainly at government web sites, as well as financial services sites.
How it happened: The perpetrators used a virus to infect computers, enlisting hundreds of thousands of unwitting computer users in several countries to launch distributed-denial-of-service (DDOS) attacks, which overwhelmed targeted web sites.

Suspects: U.S. and South Korean officials linked the attack to North Korea, but no evidence was ever presented. Some cyber-security experts scoffed at the allegations, saying that even if true, it would be nearly impossible to definitely trace the attacks to North Korea, since a sophisticated attacker could make it seem as if they originated from almost anywhere.

Kyrgyzstan, 2009: Two of the country

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