North Korean Hacking Group Sets Its Sights On Cryptocurrency Startups.
According to a study from cybersecurity firm Kaspersky, BlueNoroff, a North Korean hacker group, is now mainly attacking crypto companies.
According to a new Kapersky study, the North Korean hacker group known as BlueNoroff is almost entirely targeting crypto firms.
BlueNoroff is a hacking group with connections to the wider crybercrime group Lazarus, which has previously been linked to North Korea. Beginning with an attack on Bangladesh’s Central Bank in 2016, it first targeted banks and the SWIFT payment network.
BlueNoroff, on the other hand, has “shifted [its] focus…to solely cryptocurrency businesses” rather than traditional banks, according to Kaspersky.
According to the paper, the hacking group has traditionally started each attack by “stalking and studying successful cryptocurrency startups” via lengthy phishing operations including emails and internal discussions.
BlueNoroff has impersonated a number of actual cryptocurrency firms, including Cardano’s commercial branch, Emurgo, and the New York venture capital company Digital Currency Group. Beenos, Coinsquad, Decrypt Capital, and Coinbig have also been impersonated.
According to Kaspersky, these firms were not compromised during the attacks.
Kaspersky did not specify how much money was taken as a result of these attacks. However, Kaspersky’s Costin Raiu already identified bZx as a target of BlueNoroff’s SnatchCrypto operation. In November 2021, $55 million was stolen from that exchange.
The US Treasury further claims that somewhere between January 2017 and September 2018, BlueNoroff, Lazarus, and other organizations stole $571 million in cryptocurrencies from five exchanges. According to the Treasury, BlueNoroff stole more than $1.1 billion from financial institutions by 2018.
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