This one definitely goes well beyond "whoops” while a few security stories relate to fairly harmless issues.

It appears that two Korean companies LIGNex1 and Hyundai Heavy Industries, that construct things for the military, have had malicious code planted within their computer systems.

The (potentiality) scale of the trouble: LIGNex1 deals with missiles, radar, and communications systems and Hyundai Heavy Industries is the world's largest shipbuilder. And it was the National Security Research Institute that detected the malicious code. This sounds like the start of some near-apocalypse novel by Tom Clancy, right?

The details like: who planted the code, how they did it, and what files were affected, are rare right now. Pass it on to government secrecy or (and this is a slightly scarier possibility) true ignorance at the same level.

Anyhow, SC Magazine UK reported that a National Security Research Institute representative stated that the research institute suspects that the culprits are Chinese or North Korean hackers but does not acknowledge specifically what information they had stolen. In the toughest case, the blueprints of missiles and Aegis ship could have been stolen."

In that respect are a few bright side and good signs in all of this, however. One came as the spokesperson acknowledged, "It's shocking that our major defense industries are open to attacks from hackers and that our missiles are vulnerable to theft by cyber terrorists. A general review of our cyber security system is needed."

And altogether honesty, getting the blueprints to something does not inevitably mean that a person or country can build it. even as spy satellites presumptively save an eye on large factories and shipbuilding facilities are matters of resources and skill to consider

Finally, at least the blueprints secrets were (maybe) stolen from companies connected to a close ally like South Korea, instead of a government less intentional to cooperate with the U.S.

So, accepting we aren't completely soon destroyed in either an economic or military sense, things at Korean defense companies may be better in the long-run. And hopefully defense corporations located elsewhere in the world will also learn from this development.