They did it in the past and they are doing it again. There’s a good possibility of North Korea burrowing through accounts and scooping away cryptocurrencies. The monster has matured, it is not into data theft anymore, it is now robbing money. This is not for the first time that North Korea has broken-in into a cryptocurrency vault, though now their intentions seem more evil, with the intensification of their nuclear missile program, leading to the imposition of new sanctions. While investors have shown considerable interest in digital currencies in the last few years, the cyber-attack threat from this country is a clear indication of fast approaching thunder and storm.
The scandalous Lazarus Group, allegedly backed by North Korea is the prime suspect in these cyber-muggings. Andariel, one of the ill-famed tributaries of the country has already swindled 70 Monero from a South Korean cyrptocurrency exchange in 2017. While South Korea is in the process of passing some strong cybersecurity laws as combat measures, the danger still hovers. North Korea already stands accused of the WannaCry ransomware attack, and as in most cases the group has dismissed the claims by United States.
Through the years, North Korea has been linked to series of cyber-attacks, either to display its cyber prowess or just to fund their activities. One of the most brazen attacks occurred in February 2016 when hackers tried to steal $101 million from a Bangladesh Central bank account at the New York Federal Reserve and move it to Sri Lanka. Only a spelling error caused the banks to realize they were under attack. Un’s minions got away with nearly $81 million––most of which is yet to be recovered. “Security researchers later established that similar tactics had been used to attack banks in Ecuador, the Philippines, and Vietnam. But that was only part of the picture: Researchers at cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab said in April Lazarus also attacked financial institutions in Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Gabon, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Poland, Taiwan, Thailand, and Uruguay,” according to CNN. “The Lazarus hackers carefully routed their signal through France, South Korea, and Taiwan to set up their attack server, according to Kaspersky. But researchers noticed one mistake: A connection that briefly came from North Korea.”
Indeed, we are on the verge of a cyber-war but the question is, are we better prepared or is our enemy better equipped?
