North Korea hit by major cyberattack affecting over 40 state websites

A cyberattack using distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) techniques has targeted North Korea's government websites, according to monitoring services that track internet activity across the region. The assault affected more than 40 official sites, causing widespread outages that impacted key state institutions.

Among the affected services was the website of North Korea's foreign ministry, a critical channel for official state communications. The timing and scale of the attack underscores the vulnerability of North Korea's relatively isolated internet ecosystem, which operates under strict state control.

DDoS attacks work by flooding targeted servers with overwhelming volumes of traffic, rendering websites inaccessible to legitimate users. While the monitoring firm confirmed the outages, details regarding the origin of the attack and the parties responsible remain unclear.

The incident adds to growing concerns about cybersecurity vulnerabilities in the region, as state institutions across Asia face increasing pressure from sophisticated digital threats. North Korea's limited connectivity and centralized online infrastructure make such attacks particularly consequential for government operations.