North Korean Hackers Infiltrate Russian Missile Development Program: 'An Absolutely Hilarious Screwup'

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un seems to have no boundaries when it comes to spying, even on its ally Russia — and despite President Joe Biden’s concerns about heightened military cooperation persisting between the two nations.

What Happened: Last year, a team of North Korean hackers covertly infiltrated the computer networks of a Russian missile manufacturer, which was confirmed by technical evidence assessed by Reuters and analyzed by cybersecurity experts. 

Tom Hegel, a security expert from the U.S. cybersecurity enterprise SentinelOne, who initially detected the breach, found the hackers gained backdoor access into NPO Mashinostroyeniya, granting themselves the ability to view email communications, move between networks and retrieve data, according to Reuters. 

“These findings provide rare insight into the clandestine cyber operations that traditionally remain concealed from public scrutiny or are simply never caught by such victims,” Hegel told the outlet. 

Based on technical data reviewed by Reuters, the breach into NPO Mash’s systems lasted for about five months, beginning around late 2021 and continuing until May 2022, when the hackers’ activities were detected by the company’s IT engineers. 

While investigating the breach, an NPO Mash employee unintentionally exposed the company’s internal communications by uploading evidence of the attack to a private portal used by global cybersecurity researchers. 

The authenticity of the exposed email content was affirmed by two separate computer security specialists, Nicholas Weaver and Matt Tait, the former who said that "how the information was exposed was an absolutely hilarious screwup.”

Why It Matters: Information gathered through the breach would be of interest to North Korea, which seeks to develop an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) with the ability to reach the mainland U.S.

Although it's not clear whether the hackers obtained data that North Korea used in its own missile program, advancements in Kim Jong Un's prohibited ballistic missile program were announced in the months following the digital breach, according to the publication. 

Through the breach, North Korea could have gained critical knowledge about Russia's "Zircon" hypersonic missile, which Russian President Vladimir Putin says can travel at nine times the speed of sound and was developed and manufactured by NPO Mash, according to Reuters. 

NPO Mash, a rocket design bureau, gained prominence during the Cold War as a key manufacturer of satellites for Russia’s space program and as a supplier of cruise missiles. More recently, NPO Mash has played a pivotal role in developing hypersonic missiles, satellite technologies and next-generation ballistic weapons. 

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