South Korean Web sites were attacked again Thursday in a days-long assault that Seoul reportedly suspects North Korea is behind.
Somegovernment Web sites have been affected in this third wave of Internetassaults, including the South Korean Defense Ministry and NationalIntelligence Service. The Internet site of at least one Korean bankwas also affected.
The South Korean news agency Yonhap citedgovernment and industry officials as saying that the virus that hasinfected tens of thousands of computers appears to be programmed toautomatically delete itself on Friday.
Lawmakers say theintelligence service told them Wednesday it suspects Pyongyang or itssympathizers could be involved in the attacks.
Web sites in the United States that were targeted earlier this week appeared to have recovered Thursday.
Inthe United States, officials said Wednesday a days-long cyber attackhad affected U.S. government Web sites including those of the WhiteHouse, departments of Homeland Security, Defense, and Treasury, and theVoice of America.
In South Korea, earlier cyber attacks affectedWeb sites for the presidential office, ruling party, defense ministryand others.
Computer experts describe this kind of attack as a"distributed denial of service." A computer virus spreads from onepersonal computer to another, directing data traffic from thosecomputers to the targeted Web sites.
If North Korea did carryout the cyber attacks, it would represent a further escalation oftensions on the Korean peninsula between Pyongyang and Seoul. NorthKorea has engaged in a series of long and short-range missile tests inrecent months, as well as a nuclear test back in May.