S. Korean websites hit by DDos attack: AhnLab

South Korea's largest anti-virus software firm AhnLab Inc. said Friday it detected distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on local companies, sounding alarm bells for their cyber security.

Sixteen websites operated by 13 South Korean firms, including No. 2 portal operator Daum Communications Corp. and game developer Nexon Korea Corp., experienced cyber attacks Thursday, AhnLab said.

According to the anti-virus firm, the attack was detected around 4:00 p.m., infecting around 10,000 computers until Friday.

The hacking attempt is estimated to have been sparked by a new malicious code which was first detected in July, AhnLab added.

The company said the infected computers did not update their anti-virus programs to tackle the new malicious code, and added that the software should be activated on such computers regularly.

The state-run Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) said it has not received any reports on major damage from the firms, and added it will conduct further investigations to uncover details of the attacks. (Yonhap News)