South Korean missile blueprints stolen?

South Korea’s major newspaper, The Chosun Ilbo (Korean Daily News), is reporting that two of the country’s top defense equipment manufacturers, LIGNex1 and Hyundai Heavy Industries found malicious code on its computer systems designed to steal information.

According to the report:

LIGNex1 develops and manufactures Hyunmoo surface-to-surface missile, Haeseong ship-to-ship missile and Shingung portable ground-to-air weapons. Hyundai Heavy Industries manufactures Haeseong, the nation’s first Aegis ship, plus destroyers and submarines for the Navy. Although the development costs of such high-tech weapons are kept secret, the construction of the King Sejong the Great-class destroyer is said to cost over W1 trillion (US$1=W1,165) and development of Haeseong ship-to-ship missile W100 billion with each missile at approximately W2 billion.

The National Security Research Institute, which is affiliated with the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, believes hackers have planted vicious codes through which they stolen information. “The research institute suspects the culprits are Chinese or North Korean hackers but doesn’t know specifically what information they stole,” Kim said. “In the worst case, the blueprints of missiles and Aegis ship could have been stolen.”