US, Japan, SKorea Warn Blockchain Industry Against North Korean Cyber Attacks

The United States, Japan, and South Korea have issued a new warning to the blockchain technology industry about the ongoing targeting and compromise of a range of companies across the world by North Korean cyber criminals.

Pro-North Korean groups, including the Lazarus Group, continue to engage in cybercrime campaigns to steal cryptocurrency and targeting exchanges, digital asset custodians, and individual users, the three allied nations said in a joint statement released Tuesday.

These groups have stolen DMM Bitcoin worth $308 million, Upbit worth $50 million, and Rain Management worth $16.13 million.

WazirX, India’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, lost $235 million worth of crypto asset holdings in July last year.

In September, the U.S. government had observed aggressive targeting of the cryptocurrency industry by North Korea with well-disguised social engineering attacks that deploy malware, such as TraderTraitor and AppleJeus.

Additionally, governments agencies of the U.S., Japan and South Korea have published multiple notifications on North Korean information technology workers saying that they present an insider threat to these countries’ private sector partners.

Private sector firms, particularly in blockchain and freelance work industries, have been advised to thoroughly review their advisories and announcements “to better inform cyber threat mitigation measures and mitigate the risk of inadvertently hiring DPRK IT workers”.

“The United States, Japan, and the Republic of Korea will continue to work together to counter the DPRK’s malicious cyber activities and illicit revenue generation, including by imposing sanctions on DPRK cyber actors and collaborating to improve cybersecurity capacity across the Indo-Pacific region,” the statement says.

Business News