Cybercrime a Key Revenue Stream For North Korea’s Weapons Program

North Korea stole hundreds of millions of dollars worthy of of crypto assets in at the very least one significant hack, in accordance to a confidential United Nations (UN) report witnessed by Reuters on Thursday.

The document also reportedly implies the US previously accused North Korea of carrying out cyber-attacks to fund its nuclear and missile systems.

“Other cyber action focusing on stealing details and much more common signifies of obtaining data and materials of price to [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea]’s prohibited programs, which include […] weapons of mass destruction, continued,” the doc study.

For context, North Korea has been banned by the UN Security Council from conducting nuclear assessments and ballistic missile launches for a long time. Having said that, the document found by Reuters indicates the nation created preparations for a nuclear examination all through the initial half of 2022.

“The hottest report from the United Nations on North Korean nuclear assessments should audio the klaxon of alarm for Western organizations, specially as it especially mentions cyber-attacks currently being a key supply of funding,” discussed Kevin Bocek, VP of security strategy and menace intelligence at Venafi.

The executive says that, according to facts gathered by Venafi in June, it is obvious the proceeds of cyber-felony pursuits from groups these as Lazarus and APT38 are being utilised to circumvent intercontinental sanctions in North Korea.

“This dollars is staying funneled specifically into weapons applications. And simply because producing nuclear weapons is high priced, particularly in the confront of rising inflation and the cryptocurrency crash, companies must be on significant warn that the DPRK will be searching to funds in now and aid feed their weapons applications and fund ongoing weapon advancement,” Bocek additional.

On top of that, the security expert talked about code signing equipment identities as a  important part of North Korean nation-state attacks.

“Incidents this sort of as the 2014 Sony Hack, or the $101m heist of the Bangladesh Financial institution through the SWIFT banking procedure, have shown North Korea’s lengthy-standing curiosity in the destructive use of machine identities,” Bocek discussed.

“While the hottest UN report is an significant move in broadcasting this issue to the globe, we nevertheless need to have to see governments and companies act with each other and share intelligence on these attacks. This will be vital to developing know-how on the value of equipment identities in security. If not, we’ll continue on to see North Korean threat actors thrive.”

Some areas of this write-up are sourced from:
www.infosecurity-magazine.com