올해 1월 초, 약 4일 동안 야후 홈페이지 측에서 선보였던 비트코인 채굴 프로그램이 바이러스에 감염되었다고 프로그램 보안 관계자가 보고했다. 야후는 자신의 홈페이지에 비트코인 채굴 프로그램을 광고해 20만 명의 사람들을 끌어들였으며, 지난 4일 동안 본 프로그램을 이용한 유럽 사람들의 수는 무려 200만에 이를 것이라고 추정했다. 회사 측은 효율적인 비트코인 채굴 프로그램을 개발하고자 많은 시간을 투자했음을 밝혔다. 프로그램 상에서 비트코인을 채굴하는 방법은 간단했다. 프로그램을 통해 숫자를 맞추기만 하면 비트코인을 벌어들일 수 있는 방식이다. 제일 먼저 숫자를 맞추면 25 비트코인을 벌어들일 수 있으며, 더 많은 비트코인을 원한다면 용량이 큰 컴퓨터를 활용해 동시다발적이고, 효율적인 방법으로 비트코인을 벌어들일 수 있다. 이러한 비트코인 채굴 프로그램은 현재 온라인 범죄의 온상이 되어가고 있다. 이 자체로서 범죄자들에게 돈을 벌 수 있는 새로운 방법으로 인식된 것이다. 따라서 야

 South Korea came close to agreement with the United States Saturday on its share of the cost of keeping American soldiers on its soil, officials said, indicating that a formal announcement of the deal was imminent.   "Currently, the two sides are in the final stage of talks," a Seoul government official said. "They may be able to make an official announcement of the deal as early as tomorrow after each side reports the outcome of the talks to their respective governments."   The allies launched

트러블메이커 장현승과 현아 측이 악성루머에 강력대응할 방침이라고 밝혔다. 소속사 큐브엔터테인먼트 관계자는 10일 “악성루머를 기사형식으로 만들어 배포한 점은 악의적인 의도로밖에 볼 수가 없다”면서 “현재 변호사에 자문을 구하고 있는 중이며 빠른 시일 내에 법적조치를 취해 유포자 잡아낼 것”이라고 밝혔다.해당 루머는 스마트폰 어플리케이션을 통해 작성된 것으로 추정되며, 현아의 임신설과 이에 따른 소속사의 공식입장 발표 등이 기사형식으로 담겨 있다. *악성 루머 - malicious rumor*임신 -pregnancy<관련 영문 기사>Trouble Maker vows legal action against rumor K-pop duo Trouble Maker said Friday it would respond sternly to a malicious rumor about the supposed pregnancy of the member Hyuna.The team’s agency Cube

 Eccentric former U.S. basketball star Dennis Rodman and some former NBA players are believed to have enjoyed skiing in North Korea, a day after holding an exhibition match for leader Kim Jong-un's birthday, an American tourist who returned from Pyongyang after watching the game said Thursday.   Rodman sang "Happy Birthday" to Kim in Pyongyang on Wednesday before joining the game with fellow former NBA players. Multiple Western tourists who attended the game and landed at the Beijing airport on

 South Korea's antitrust watchdog on Thursday fined Johnson & Johnson Korea 1.8 billion won ($1.68 million) for hampering eyeglasses stores from cutting prices of its contact lens products.   Johnson & Johnson Korea is a local unit of Johnson & Johnson Visioncare headquartered in the U.S. It leads the contact lens market here with a 45 percent share as of 2012.    According to the Fair Trade Commission (FTC), Johnson & Johnson violated fair trade laws by determining its own minimum prices before

POSCO, South Korea's biggest steelmaker, said Thursday that it has developed the world's first radio frequency identification tag (RFID) system specialized for checking the inventory of steel plates for ships.   POSCO said it has succeeded in commercializing the system three years after it launched the project to develop it jointly with local firm Inpoesti.    The steelmaker plans to export the system to large-scale shipbuilders and other global major steelmakers. (Yonhap News)

North Korea on Thursday rejected South Korea's offer of talks on laying the groundwork for reunions of families separated after the Korean War in the latest sign of lingering tensions on the divided Korean Peninsula.   Still, the North indicated that it can hold the reunions in "good season," though it did not give a specific time frame for the unions.   The move came three days after South Korean President Park Geun-hye called for a resumption of the reunions, one of the highly emotional issues

State prosecutors sought an arrest warrant Thursday for a former head of local telecom giant KT Corp. for embezzlement and breach of trust.    Lee Suk-chae has been under a probe on charges of inflicting huge losses on KT, the country's top fixed-line operator and No. 2 mobile carrier, through poor investments and inking dubious business deals from 2009 till he resigned in November last year.    Lee also allegedly stashed around several billion won (several million U.S. dollars) worth of secret

 South Korean stocks closed almost flat Wednesday as investors sat on the sidelines amid rising economic uncertainties from abroad, analysts said. The Korean won closed higher against the U.S. dollar.   The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index shed0.48 points, or 0.02 percent, to 1,958.96. Trading volume was low at 213 million shares worth 4.27 trillion won ($4.01 billion) with gainers outpacing losers 453 to 346.   Analysts said Seoul shares lost ground as investors remained concerned ov

The countdown to the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi reached 30 days on Wednesday, as South Korean athletes set their sight on another top-10 finish in the medal table.   With the clock ticking down, it was business as usual for the athletes at the National Training Center in Seoul, where they're gearing up for the Feb. 7-23 Winter Games in Russia.   Figure skater Kim Yu-na, who will try to win her second straight Olympic gold, and speed skaters Mo Tae-bum and Lee Sang-hwa, two defending Olym

    North Korea has said it will allow Americans and other foreigners to run in the Pyongyang marathon in April, a U.S. tour agency said Wednesday.   Uri Tours, a U.S.-based agency that specializes in trips to North Korea, said that Americans and other nationalities, whether they are amateurs or professional runners, can run in the Mangyongdae Prize International Marathon on April 14. Mangyongdae is the birthplace of the North's founder Kim Il-sung.   "This is the first time that Americans are a

앰네스티 인터내셔널은 한국 정부가 바레인에 한국산 최루탄 수출을 중단시키기로 했다고  발표했다고 밝혔다. 이는 바레인 전역에 불고있는 시위에 한국산 최루탄이 사용되었다는 논란 때문인것으로 알려졌다.이 보도에 따르면 방위사업청은 작년 10∼11월 바레인 수출 승인을 신청한 대광화공 등 최루탄 업체 2곳에 선적을 중단할 것을 지시했다. 파이낸셜 타임지는  이정근 방사청 대변인은 바레인 정세가 불안한데다 최루탄으로 현지인이 숨졌고 인권단체의 항의가 나와 수출 중단 결정을 내렸다고 밝혔다고 전했다.앞서 국제앰네스티 한국지부 등 23개 인권 시민단체는 지난달 4일 한국 외교부 청사 앞에서 기자회견을 열고 '바레인 정부가 최루탄으로 시위대를 무리하게 진압하 면서 최소 39명이 숨졌다"며 "인권침해에 쓰이는 무기의 수출을 중단하라"고 촉구했 다.바레인에서는 국민의 다수인 이슬람 시아파 교도들이 수니파 정권을 규탄하는 집회를 대거 벌이면서 강경 진압 논란이 계속되고 있다.(khnews@herald

North Korea will hold a major parliamentary election in March, the country's state news agency announced Wednesday.   "The Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly decided to hold an election of deputies to the 13th SPA on March 9," the Korean Central News Agency reported in a one-paragraph dispatch. DPRK is the acronym for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name.   The current members of the SPA were elected in March 2009. (Yonhap News)