U.S. Accuses North Korean Hackers of Stealing Millions

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The U.S. Department of Justice has indicted three North Korean computer programmers for their alleged participation in widespread, destructive cyberattacks as part of the advanced persistent threat (APT) known as Lazarus Group. The indictment broadens the scope of crimes that the DoJ has linked to Lazarus Group (and by extension, to North Korea).
 
The feds also announced that an alleged Lazarus Group accomplice, a Canadian-American citizen now in custody, is planning to plead guilty to money laundering.
The three main suspects, all for now believed by the FBI to be residing in North Korea and remaining beyond the range of U.S. law enforcement, are wanted in connection with a range of alleged crimes. These include the 2017 WannaCry cyberattacks; the 2014 data breach of Sony Pictures Entertainment; stealing and extorting more than $1.3 billion of money and cryptocurrency from financial institutions and companies; creating espionage-focused malware; and developing and fraudulently marketing a blockchain platform that was also used for espionage.
 
The hacking indictment filed in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, unsealed Wednesdaty, alleges that Jon Chang Hyok, Kim Il, and Park Jin Hyok are all members of the Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB), the military intelligence agency of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). It alleges that specifically, the three are members of a well-known RGB arm tasked with cybercrime, known as Lazarus Group or APT28.
Park was previously charged in a U.S. criminal complaint unsealed in September 2018, wherein the feds charged him in the hacking of Sony Pictures, WannaCry and also the costly 2016 SWIFT attack on the Bangladesh central bank.
 
“Today’s unsealed indictment expands upon the FBI’s 2018 charges for the unprecedented cyberattacks conducted by the North Korean regime,” said the FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate. “The ongoing targeting, compromise, and cyber-enabled theft by North Korea from global victims was met with the outstanding, persistent investigative efforts of the FBI in close collaboration with U.S. and foreign partners.”

Read more: https://threatpost.com/us-accuses-north-...rs/164039/