South Korea’s nuclear plant operator has said its computer systems have been breached, raising fears that hackers, including those with possible North Korean links, could shift their focus to key infrastructure.

The violation prompted a safety drill on Monday at nuclear plants around the country. The precautionary exercise comes days after the US blamed Pyongyang for hacking Sony Pictures, which led the company to cancel the release of a Hollywood satire about the fictional assassination of the secretive state’s leader, Kim Jong-un.

North Korea has denied responsibility for the Sony hack and threatened to retaliate if the White House continued to blame it. Pyongyang said there was “clear evidence” the Obama administration was behind the film.

Officials in the South Korean capital, Seoul, said only noncritical data about nuclear plants had been leaked, adding that they were confident they could fend off any attempt to compromise the safety of the country’s atomic facilities. “It’s our judgment that the control system is designed in such a way – there is no risk whatsoever,” Chung Yang-ho, deputy energy minister, said.

President Park Geun-hye ordered a complete inspection of South Korea’s key national infrastructure against what she called “cyber-terrorism”.

Read the Full Article: Source – The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/22/south-korea-nuclear-power-cyber-attack-hack

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