North Koran leader Kim Jong-un is feared to have unleashed a global wave of cybercrime in a bid to cope with coronavirus financial meltdown in the Asian country. According to a news report in Mirror, Kim Jong-un has instructed the North Korean hacker group, Lazarus, to use phishing scams to steal bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The same hacking group was behind the attack on Sony Pictures following the release of Hollywood film The Interview.
Lazarus and two other hacking groups stole $571m from crypto exchanges.
The infamous hacking group Lazarus along with two other hacking groups stole $571m worth of crypto from five Asian exchanges between January 2017 and September 2018, a US government report revealed. According to the news report, now that North Korea’s economy plunged due to the coronavirus pandemic and international sanctions, the infamous hacker group has embarked on a new spate of APT (advanced persistent threat) attacks. Seoul-based EST Security said that the APT group Lazarus, which is allegedly sponsored by a certain government, is increasingly engaging in cybercrime activities in and out of the country.
North Korea has been accused of using crypto to fund nuclear weapons.
The rogue nation North Korea has been repeatedly accused of using stolen crypto funds to fund its ballistic missile projects. Seoul-based EST security firm also said that the government-sponsored Lazarus group is conducting a major APT attack not only in Korea but also in the international community, including the United States. According to the security firm, hackers were consistently using emails disguised as job offers to spread their malware and steal cryptocurrencies.
There has been a significant rise in crypto scams since the coronavirus pandemic has begun. The security firm also noted that a malicious document file is used as a bait to target workers in major companies and institutions, and recent threats have increased significantly, requiring special attention.
