The South Korean government has warned that tens of thousands of personal computers are set to self destruct starting on Friday.

The warning comes after a third consecutive day of cyber attacks against South Korean government and commercial websites, taking many of them offline for hours.

The Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack Thursday targeted at least seven websites operated by government and media organizations, including Kookmin Bank, the Ministry of Public Administration and Security’s electronic government site, the mass-circulation Chosun Ilbo and leading portal Naver.

At the same time the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) said it has been notified by South Korean computer vaccine company Ahn Lab that the DDoS virus responsible for initiating the attacks, was set to destroy at least 20,000 contaminated PCs across the nation.

The report said the virus has been programmed to automatically destroy the computer’s stored data starting Friday, though the virus was not identified or any protection remedies provided.

The heart of the problem would appear to be South Korea’s early adoption of technology and eCommerce based on Microsoft Windows and that companies Internet Explorer web browser and it’s historical reliance on Active X control and continued security flaws.

More information on the vulnerabilities in the South Korea online network can be found at the Mozilla in Asia blogsite in an article written by Gen Kanai in 2007 titled the cost of monoculture.