Did S. Koreans attack Japanese internet message board 2ch over figure skating?

South Korean internet users, bothered by Japanese internet bashing of Korean gold medal figure skating star Yu-Na Kim, may be behind a massive denial of service (DoS) attack that has disabled one of Japan’s most popular message boards known as 2channel, Japanese and Korean media outlets reported on March 2nd (JST).

On February 28th, the Japanese-language version of a South Korean news site, Joins.com, reported that a Korea internet site was trying to gather internet users for a joint attack aimed at taking down the parts of the 2channel (2ch.net) message boards known to be filled with ultra-nationalist Japanese rhetoric and anti-Korean sentiments. Joins.com stated that Korean internet users were upset over recent defamatory comments against their country and its citizens, particularly negative remarks made in recent weeks about figure skater Yu-Na Kim. The supposed organizers were also said to be timing the DoS attacks to coincide with the March 1st Korean national holiday, which celebrates the beginning of a movement back in 1919 for the country’s declaration of independence from Japan.

According to the company that reportedly manages the hosting of 2channel, maido3.com, their servers started receiving connection difficulties just before noon on March 1st, and a large portion of their system was knocked out of service within the following several hours. That afternoon, the company claimed that a “F5 reload attack originating from 50,000 people” was believed to be the cause. The idea was that the attackers were, on a large scale, repeatedly pushing the F5 key to reload pages on 2ch, eventually disrupting the networks system connectivity with the internet.

However, in a twist to the events, maido3.com’s servers are said to be rented and physically located at a US-based server provider named Pacific Internet Exchange. Maido3.com posted a statement from a Pacific Internet Exchange representative, which said, “The incident was caused by [a] mass amount of bot computers…currently we have set an ACL (Access Control List) to IP’s from Korea and other countries but still do see a minor attack related to the incident.” The US-based company also indicated that they were preparing to submit documentation about the incident to local US cyber-terrorism authorities.

2ch was inaccessible until the evening hours of March 2nd (JST). Also, some news agencies were indicating that small attempts at reprisal, likely by Japanese-based users, may have begun. The Asahi reported that internet sites relating to the disputed set of islands located between Japan and Korea, as well as the website for the Office of the Korean President were having intermediate connection difficulties from Japan.

The March 1st denial of service attacks on 2ch was not a first for the controversial message board.

Sorry editing the title to give it a better understanding of the news.

2 Channel is known as a relatively pro-America conservative forum, a sort of Free Republic in Japan, but lesser a blog style and more a bulletin board style (and with more trolls of conservative bashing because of lesser control). 2 Channel shares the same data center operating several US government servers. According to other source, more than 50,000 South Korean citizens (not professional hackers, just citizens pressing F5 for hours) have engaged in a Function Key 5 (F5) rapid page reloading attack in a form of DDoS, resulting in the crash of the attacked 2 Channel, and crashing unknown numbers of US government site sharing the same server in the data center of Pacific Internet Exchange. South Koreans have been often criticized by Japanese for local fascist South Korean ethnics promoting the anti-US pro-China Japan Democratic Party which has been promoting more rights for migrants, South Korean ethnics in specific. Japan's Democratic Party is sort of Japanese version of the America's Democratic Party. The ethnics have also provided support during the election, resulting in the fall of pro-US Liberal Democratic Party. In the US, South Korean lobby groups have been criticized by Japanese pro-US groups which South Korean groups have been attempting to damage US-Japan relationship to benifit as a more infuencial nation in the Far East region, and to gain on territorial disputes between Japan.

South Korean migrants in Japan may be comparable to the Mexicans in the US, often claiming their territory of the southern border of US, inviting families of illegal migrants, against the concept of melting pot, and promoting anti-Americanism. Whatever the target was, South Koreans as an entire are true fascists as a result of their brainwashing education system and has caused damage on US government site as a result of cyber terrorism, and in other words, engaged terrorism against America. I believe such barabaric ethnic is not a favorable partner for US, and its democracy is nothing but fake. An attack on pro-US entity is an attack on allies of the US as well.

2 Channel http://www.2ch.net/

Comparable traffic stats http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/2ch.net#trafficstats http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/freerepublic.com#trafficstats

Announcement from BIG-server.com operating 2 Channel, sharing the data center of Pacific Internet Exchange with US government sites.

http://www.maido3.cc/server/

PIE.us
Ryan Iwasaka

Dear All,

We would like to update you regarding to the DDos attack which occurred on 2/28/10 6:35pm PST.

The incident was caused by mass amount of bot computers putting a stress on PIE.us’s network equipments.

Currently we have set an ACL (Access Control List) to IP’s from Korea and other countries but still do see a minor attack related to the incident.

This might possibly be caused by automated scripts and we are preparing to turn documentations and logs into local authorities as a cyber terrorism against U.S. corporation.

PIE bandwidth is now stable and we have lowered our level from Red to Orange.

Thank you,

PIE.us
Ryan Iwasaka

So they were angry at a few anti-Kim Yu Na comments. Big deal!

Beating Japan at anything and everything, is something that most, if not all Koreans relish.

Has nothing to do with re-aligning extra-national alliances and/or triangulating between China and the US.

It was just a sporting spat amongst rivals...good grief!

“South Koreans as an entire are true fascists as a result of their brainwashing education system”

Okay...

“has caused damage on US government site as a result of cyber terrorism, and in other words, engaged terrorism against America”

So “South Koreans are fascist terrorists”, you say.

I’ll hold off judgement on that.

The F5 key ain’t no 9/11.

Try & work out your differences. I’m sure there are some good south koreans, right.

I watched this competiton. The sports commentators (Scott Hamilton, etc) were ecstatic about the Korean girl’s performance, saying it was probably one of the best olympic performances ever. They also gushed about her “humility” and talked about how she was a huge star in Korea.

It seems she is absolutely adored by the Korean public, and I will say, she seemed humble, quiet, and determined - quite sweet.

After this incredible performance everyone went bonkers over, this poor Japanese girl had to skate, and I really felt for her - the pressure in these Asian societies is enormous. If you lose, it’s personal because you failed the people.

I’m not surprised it’s still red hot over there on this.

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