Cyber attack on U.S., North Korea suspected

Massive cyber attack on United States and South Korean government web sites looks to have originated in North Korea. Washington Post and other non-governmental sites also hit.

In what appears to have begun on July 4, a widespread cyber attack has been unleashed on U.S. and South Korean government web sites - including the Treasury Department and the Secret Service. The Washington Post also reported problems with its web site operations on Wednesday. While U.S. government officials refuse to publicly place responsibility for the attack, South Korean intelligence sources believe the attacks originated in North Korea. "The U.S. government sites, which included those of the Federal Trade Commission and the Transportation Department, were all down at varying points over the holiday weekend and into this week," the Associated Press reported. The U.S. Homeland Security Department said that it had issued a notice to government agencies advising them on steps to take to cope with the attack. However, the advice may not have been enough. "Others familiar with the U.S. outage, which is called a denial of service attack, said the fact that the government Web sites were still being affected three days after it began signaled an unusually lengthy and sophisticated attack," reported AP.