back to article Winter Olympics website downed by cyber attack

The Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics' website went down just before the event's Friday opening ceremony in South Korea, thanks to a cyber-attack, and stayed down for about 12 hours. The outage left users unable to print tickets or view information about the games. Some networks around the games venues also went down. …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    9.2, 9.4, 9.3, 9.5, 9.3...

    And an 8.9 from the Russian judge. Owch, that's got to hurt!

  2. Queeg
    Alert

    Call me a cynical old codger..

    While I'm sure those young ladies worked hard to sync their routine, the reason they are there is obvious.

    "See, North Koreans aren't nuclear armed monsters waiting to fall on South Korea.

    We're just ordinary folk like you."

    Kim (Rocket Man) Jong Un sent them along with his Sister (who has a really weird smirk on her face in all the footage I've seen, maybe she knows something I don't) on a charm offensive.

    Honey gets you more flies than Vinegar.

    Have to say I'm not convinced.

    You can polish a turd but it still smells like shit.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Call me a cynical old codger..

      I think you will find that Kim's sister is in charge of several internment camps when she is home and that may be the reason for the smirking because they think she has pulled a fast one on the world.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Call me a cynical old codger..

        And we can be sure that every one of those cheerleaders has relatives up north who will face very hard times should she defect, and that this fact has been made painfully clear to her.

        1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

          Re: Call me a cynical old codger..

          "And we can be sure that every one of those cheerleaders has relatives up north who will face very hard times should she defect, and that this fact has been made painfully clear to her."

          Don't assume that everyone in NK is desperately looking for a way to escape. They have patriots there too.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Call me a cynical old codger..

            Well sure. In fact, I think there's a law saying they HAVE to be patriots. Those found not to be patriotic are punished, or so it is said.

    2. Kubla Cant

      Re: Call me a cynical old codger..

      Honey gets you more flies than Vinegar.

      I am not an entomologist, but I think those who know say that the opposite is true. Fruit flies like vinegar and they are very numerous.

      1. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

        Re: Call me a cynical old codger..

        Fruit flies like vinegar

        Also in the news, time flies like an arrow.

    3. macjules

      Re: Call me a cynical old codger..

      You can polish a turd but it still smells like shit

      You can even stick an orange wig on it and make it the president of a country.

  3. Martin Summers Silver badge

    "At the moment we are making sure our systems are secure, which they are, so discussing details of it is not helpful."

    Of course. And is stable door locking now a Winter Olympic sport?

    1. Mark 85

      Perhaps they should re-think and have two systems...one not exposed to the outside world for ticketing, etc. and one for comms that the script kiddies/hackers/etc. can have fun with. I guess I don't get why everything "needs" to be Internet facing.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Always used to be 2 (at least systems) then it went to the cloud.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hey, let's list which countries are currently annoying the US and the EU - more specifically countries on Thumper's and Angela's shit list. Here goes

    North Korea - which makes no sense at all, but put them at number one

    Russia - just because

    Antarctica - 'cos those sneaky penguins couldn't manage a team and it would provide a perfect excuse to invade it

    Iran - 'cos we want to bomb the shit out them

    Syria - 'cos we want to bomb the shit out them

    Turkey - 'cos we want to bomb the shit out them

    It will be interesting to see which one they pick. Alternative they could pick somewhere random like Somalia because they won the gold medal in piracy.

    1. Boris the Cockroach Silver badge

      Wont be Somalia, Piracy is a summer event

    2. Kevin McMurtrie Silver badge

      It's also quite probable that South Korea is a victim of their own botnets. 20 years of not giving a crap can take its toll when you actually need something working.

    3. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

      Antarctica - 'cos those sneaky penguins couldn't manage a team

      Well - they probably don't have any comms capability after the TCP-over-pidgeon team all died just before winter..

  5. harmjschoonhoven

    Re: Antarctica

    Those sneaky penguins are just brooding on their nuclear bomb shaped eggs. They aren't afraid of anything.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Facepalm

    Olympic website falls over - Korea blames hackers

    Site report for www.pyeongchang2018.com

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'm just going to put it out there that it could be Iceland. They have the perfect cover being the safest country in the world.

  8. frank ly

    It had to be said

    "You will understand that maintaining secure operations is our focus. ..."

    They seem to have lost focus.

  9. Korev Silver badge
    Joke

    Disappointment

    You could have said their website was snowed under...

    1. Korev Silver badge
      Coat

      Re: Disappointment

      If El Reg carries on like this then they'll luge readers

  10. x 7

    Kim's concubines look so happy don't they? What do you reckon - food for sex?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Like cucumbers?

    2. Chairman of the Bored

      Food for sex!

      That would have made marriage a hell of a lot easier! Thanks for the tip.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hmmmm

    'As North Korea has made peaceful overtures towards the South ahead of the games, it's thought to be unlikely it's behind whatever attack hit the Games' website.'

    Can anyone think of any countries known to enjoy a spot of cyberwarfare who have recently been banned from taking part in the Winter Olympics?

    1. Kabukiwookie
      Black Helicopters

      Re: Hmmmm

      Can anyone think of a country that's been trying to railroad the Korean peace process and does so many hacks of overseas targets that it specifically created a tool to leave traces that other parties did the hack.

  12. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge
    Mushroom

    Right Said Kim Jong-un

    I'm too sexy for my shirt

    Too sexy for my shirt

    So sexy it hurts

    And I'm too sexy for Seoul

    Too sexy for Seoul

    New York, and Japan

    I'm too sexy for your party

    Too sexy for your party

    ...

    With thanks to Fred...

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So they have not identified the attacker and will not name them at a press conference...

    Maximum points if they could name them without identifying them.

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