Carnegie Mellon University
February 27, 2018

Sekar quoted on Pyeongchang cyberattack

There were concerns about potential cyberattacks leading up to the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Those concerns were validated during the opening ceremonies when hackers hit Pyeongchang’s computer system with a destroyer malware attack. SC Magazine shares that forensic work has shown the intent of the attack was to disable the networks functionality and not steal data. While investigators know the ‘what,’ they’ve yet to discover the ‘who.’ “It's pretty easy for attackers to hide their origins or use VPNs etc., so the IOC is probably doing the right thing of not blaming until they are sure,” Vyas Sekar told SC Magazine. “Forensics/attribution is really hard work especially given sophisticated attackers.” Read the article.