By Kim Rahn

A group of gangsters have been caught hiring hackers to make "cyber attacks" to shut down rival gambling websites, the first of its kind here.

The prosecution said Sunday that it arrested a server rental company head, 32-year-old Lee, and a hacker, 37-year-old Park, on charges of attacking gambling websites with distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) at the instigation of gangsters who operated an illegal gambling site.

Prosecutors also suspended indicting four members of the Incheon-based crime ring, including 34-year-old Yeom, on charges of ordering the attack.

Lee and Park, who had managed the gang's illegal gambling site, crippled 109 rival websites by attacking them with DDoS malware for one or two hours every day between Nov. 21 and Dec. 15 last year.

Thinking that more gamblers would visit his website if other sites were shut down, Yeom provided Lee and Park with lists of 50,000 "zombie" computers infected by the malicious codes, which he purchased in China. He also informed them of the names of rival sites through cell phone text messages or online chatting services.

"It is the first time that a crime ring has hired a professional hacker, provided necessary equipment and made systematic DDoS attack," a prosecutor said.

Lee was also found that after a job information website rejected to use his company's server, he made DDoS attacks on the website from Nov. 23 and Dec. 10 together with Park.