North Korean hackers working for the government\u00a0stole record-breaking virtual assets last year\u00a0estimated to be worth between $630 million and more than $1 billion, U.N. experts said in a new report.<\/p>\n
The panel of experts said in the wide-ranging report seen Tuesday by The Associated Press that the hackers used increasingly\u00a0sophisticated techniques\u00a0to gain access to\u00a0digital networks\u00a0involved in cyberfinance, and to steal information that could be useful in North Korea\u2019s nuclear and ballistic missile programs from governments, individuals and companies.<\/p>\n
With growing tensions on the Korean Peninsula, the report said North Korea continued to violate U.N. sanctions, producing weapons-grade nuclear material, and improving its ballistic missile program, which \u201ccontinued to accelerate dramatically.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2022, the Democratic People\u2019s Republic of Korea \u2013 the North\u2019s official name \u2013 launched at least 73 ballistic missiles and missiles combining ballistic and guidance technologies including eight intercontinental ballistic missiles, the panel said. And 42 launches, including the test of a reportedly new type of ICBM and a new solid-fueled ICBM engine, were conducted in the last four months of the year.<\/p>\n
North Korea\u2019s leader Kim Jong Un ordered an \u201cexponential increase of the country\u2019s nuclear arsenal\u201d in January, and the panel said \u201ca new law discussed an increased focus on tactical nuclear capability, a new first-use doctrine, and the `irreversible nature\u2019 of the DPRK\u2019s nuclear status.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ability to carry out an unexpected nuclear strike on any regional or international target, described in DPRK\u2019s new law on nuclear doctrine and progressively in public statements since 2021, is consistent with the observed production, testing, and deployment of its tactical and strategic delivery systems,\u201d the experts said in the report to the U.N. Security Council.<\/p>\n
{ Read: North Korean APT Expands Its Attack Repertoire<\/a> }<\/strong><\/p>\n The panel said that South Korean authorities quoted in media reports \u201cestimated that state sponsored DPRK cyber threat actors had stolen virtual assets worth around $1.2 billion globally since 2017, including about $630 million in 2022 alone.\u201d<\/p>\n The experts monitoring sanctions against North Korea said an unnamed cybersecurity firm \u201cassessed that in 2022, DPRK cybercrime yielded cyber currencies worth over $1 billion at the time of the threat, which is more than double the total proceeds in 2021.\u201d<\/p>\n The variation in the U.S. dollar value of cryptocurrency in recent months is likely to have affected these estimates, the panel said, \u201cbut both show that 2022 was a record-breaking year for DPRK virtual asset theft.\u201d<\/p>\n The panel said three groups that are part of the Reconnaissance General Bureau, North Korea\u2019s primary foreign intelligence organization, \u201ccontinued illicitly to target victims to generate revenue and solicit information of value to the DPRK including its weapons programs\u201d \u2013 Kimsuky, Lazarus Group and Andariel.<\/p>\n Between February and July 2022, the panel said, the Lazarus Group<\/a><\/strong> \u201creportedly targeted energy providers in multiple member states using a vulnerability\u201d to install malware and gain long-term access. It said this \u201caligns with historical Lazarus intrusions targeting critical infrastructure and energy companies \u2026 to siphon off proprietary intellectual property.\u201d<\/p>\n Lazarus Group\u2019s primary focus is on specific types of industry, aerospace and defense and conventional finance and cryptocurrencies, with the objective of accessing the internal knowledge bases of the compromised companies, the experts said. They quoted the cybersecurity section of an internet technology company as saying Lazarus has been targeting engineers and technical support employees \u201cusing malicious versions of open source applications.\u201d<\/p>\n In December 2022, the panel said, South Korea\u2019s national police agency announced that Kimsuky had targeted 892 foreign policy related experts \u201cin an effort to steal personal data and email lists.\u201d<\/p>\n The police reported that the hackers didn\u2019t manage to steal sensitive information, but they \u201claundered IP addresses of the victims and employed 326 detour servers and 26 member states to make tracing difficult,\u201d the experts said. The police noted it was the first time they detected Kimsuky using ransomware, saying 19 servers and 13 businesses were affected, of which two paid 2.5 million South Korean won ($1,980) in Bitcoin to the hackers.<\/p>\n On military-related issues, the experts said they investigated the \u201capparent export\u201d of military communications equipment from a North Korean company under U.N. sanctions to Ethiopia\u2019s defense ministry in June 2022.<\/p>\n The panel said it has not yet received a reply from Ethiopia\u2019s government about a photo published by the Ethiopian media in November allegedly showing a piece of equipment from the Global Communications Co., known as Glocom, being used by a top military official. Eritrea also hasn\u2019t responded to questions about its alleged procurement of Glocom equipment, the experts said.<\/p>\n North Korea may also have illegally traded arms and related material with a number of countries, including sending artillery shells, infantry rockets and missiles to Russia \u2013 claims Pyongyang and Moscow have consistently denied, the panel said. And the experts said they are investigating the reported sale of weapons from a North Korean company on the U.N. sanctions list to the Myanmar military through a Myanmar company.<\/p>\n The post UN Experts: North Korean Hackers Stole Record Virtual Assets<\/a> appeared first on SecurityWeek<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" North Korean hackers working for the government\u00a0stole record-breaking virtual assets last year\u00a0estimated to be worth between $630 million and more than $1 billion, U.N. experts said in a new report. The panel of experts said in the wide-ranging report seen Tuesday by The Associated Press that the hackers used increasingly\u00a0sophisticated techniques\u00a0to gain access to\u00a0digital networks\u00a0involved […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16979,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,69,85,77,102],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cybercrime","category-featured","category-lazarus","category-nation-state","category-north-korea"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.show.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.show.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.show.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.show.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.show.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.show.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.show.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.show.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.show.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.show.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}