North Korean hackers are masquerading as IT specialists to commit cybercrimes - media
Kyiv • UNN
North Korean hackers are masquerading as IT specialists to steal intellectual property and cryptocurrency. They infiltrate companies to circumvent sanctions and finance weapons development.
Hackers from North Korea are successfully disguising themselves as cyber specialists who are getting jobs in leading companies. After that, they steal intellectual property and seize cryptocurrency, UNN writes with reference to Wired.
DPRK hackers
Young developers are having a great time. They open bottles of sparkling wine, dine on steaks, play football together and relax in a luxurious private pool, and all their activities are captured in photographs that were later published online. In one of the photos, a man poses in front of a life-size Minions cardboard figure. But, despite their energy, these are not successful Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. These are IT workers from the hermit country of North Korea who infiltrate Western companies and send their salaries home
For years, North Korea, led by dictator Kim Jong-un, has been one of the most complex and dangerous cyber threats to Western countries and businesses, as its hackers steal intellectual property needed to develop their own technologies, as well as steal billions in cryptocurrencies to circumvent sanctions and build nuclear weapons.
North Korean IT workers are actively engaged in their activities, often trying to penetrate several companies at once, using stolen personal data or creating fake personas to try to appear legitimate. Some of them use freelance platforms. Others try to recruit international intermediaries to manage "farms" of laptops.
Although their online personas may be fake, the country, where millions of people lack basic human rights or access to the Internet, directs talented children into its educational sphere, where they can become skilled developers and hackers. This means that many IT workers and hackers probably know each other, perhaps from childhood. Despite their technical skills, they often leave a digital footprint.
Counteraction of cybersecurity services
In February, the FBI announced that North Korea carried out the largest cryptocurrency heist in history, stealing $1.5 billion from the Bybit crypto exchange. Along with skilled hackers, Pyongyang's IT workers, often based in China or Russia, trick companies into hiring them as remote workers and are becoming an increasing threat.
What we're doing isn't working, and if it is, it's not fast enough
In addition to identifying individual Korean hackers, DTEX, in a detailed report on North Korean cyber activity, also publishes more than 1,000 email addresses that it says have been identified as being linked to the activities of North Korean IT workers. This move is one of the largest revelations to date of the activities of North Korean IT workers.
North Korea's broad cyber operations cannot be compared to those of other hostile countries such as Russia and China, Barnhart explains in the DTEX report, as Pyongyang acts as a "state-sanctioned criminal syndicate" rather than a more traditional military or intelligence operation. It's all about funding the regime, developing weapons and gathering information, Barnhart explained.
Everything is connected in a certain way
Addition
France accuses Russia of carrying out cyberattacks on the country's facilities in order to destabilize it. Paris said that Russian military intelligence has attacked dozens of French institutions since 2021.