More evidence emerges of North Korea targeting cryptocurrency industry
State-sanctioned North Korean hackers allegedly continue to target cryptocurrency companies and exchanges, particularly as a means of enriching the nation and countering the effects of imposed economic sanctions, according to newly released reports.
One report, from Dell Technologies' SecureWorks, describes a spear phishing campaign whose lure emails feature a fake job opening at a cryptocurrency company. Meanwhile, Korean and global news outlets have reported that South Korea's National Intelligence Service spy agency suspects that North Korea is responsible for hacking attacks on one of its country's cryptocurrency exchanges.
On Friday, researchers from Secureworks' Counter Threat Unit reported that the Lazarus Group, an APT actor commonly linked to North Korea, commenced a spear phishing campaign on Oct. 25, using emails that falsely advertise an open CFO position at a European cryptocurrency company. In actuality, it appears the attackers copied a LinkedIn CFO job profile from a cryptocurrency company based in Asia and slightly tweaked it to create the phishing content.
