Seoul: South Korea’s nuclear power plant operator launched a two-day drill on Monday to test its ability to thwart a cyber attack, after a series of online information leaks by a suspected hacker.
The drill was conducted at the country’s four nuclear plant complexes, said Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co (KHNP), which operates 23 nuclear reactors and supplies about 30 per cent of the country’s electricity.
“The two-day drill is under way through simulators to ensure the safety of our nuclear power plants under cyber attacks,” said KHNP spokesman Kim Tae-Seok.
Last week a suspected hacker published a variety of information on a Twitter account entitled “president of the anti-nuclear reactor group”.
It included designs and manuals for two reactors, as well as personal information on some 10,000 KHNP workers.
In a new message on Sunday, the hacker threatened to release more information unless the government shuts down three reactors from December 25 and warned residents living near the plants to stay away for the next few months.
Vice-Energy minister Lee Kwan-Sup said the leaks appeared to be from plants at Gori and Wolsong, but said they and would not affect the safety of the reactors.
KHNP insisted the suspected hacker could not have gained access to the plants’ innermost networks, which were completely isolated from unauthorised access. “We believe the information must have been leaked before the networks were isolated last year,” KHNP’s Lee Jong-Ho said.
