SOUTH Korea today investigated a mysterious internet shutdown during the Winter Olympics opening ceremony, which followed warnings of possible cyberattacks during the Pyeongchang Games.

Internal internet and Wi-Fi systems crashed about 1015 GMT yesterday, and were still not back to normal at midday today, said Games organisers.

Cybersecurity teams and experts from South Korea’s Defence Ministry, plus four other ministries, formed part of a task force investigating the shutdown, they said, adding that it did not affect the high-tech opening ceremony.

Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, South Korean President Moon Jae-in and US Vice-President Mike Pence were among the VIPs at the Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium late yesterday.

The outage followed warnings of malware phishing attacks targeting organisations working at the Olympics, and allegations of cyberattacks from Russia – which has denied any involvement.

North Korea has also been blamed for a series of cyber incidents, including the WannaCry global ransomware attack, which infected 300,000 computers worldwide in May last year.

“We don’t want to speculate because we’re still trying to find out what the root source is,” said Nancy Park, a spokesman for the Games organisers.

“We have some reports, we’ve been working all night trying to find out, and working with our partners.”

WannaCry

South Korea showed off its technical expertise with a dazzling gala opening ceremony yesterday, which included state-of-the-art special effects and augmented reality to add extra impact for TV viewers.

While internet and Wi-Fi were affected across the Olympic site – spread over two main venues in mountainous eastern South Korea – organisers said there was no impact on competition, which got into full swing today.

“There were some issues that impacted some of our non-critical systems last night for a few hours,” Games organisers said in a statement.

“These have not disrupted any events, or had any effect on the safety and security of any athletes or spectators.

“All competitions are running as planned, and the systems are working at the expected level.”

Last month, cybersecurity firm McAfee said it had uncovered an attack targeting organisations involved in the Olympics, using a malicious email attachment.

North Korea has been accused of involvement in a number of cyber incidents, including WannaCry – although it has slammed that accusation as “absurd”.

Russia has also denied launching any hacking attacks on the Pyeongchang Olympics, where its team is formally banned following the revelation of systemic doping.

While organisers would not comment on the possibility that an attack was behind the shutdown, experts believe that disrupting the Games would be seen as a coup for many hackers.

“The whole world’s watching. It’s one of the largest stages you can possibly have to get a message out there,” Ross Rustici, senior director for intelligence at the Boston-based Cybereason, told the Tribune News Service.

“You got a lot of lower-tier guys going after these Games. It’s head-hunting, bragging rights,” Rustici was quoted as saying. – AFP, February 10, 2018.