When Japanese Police Warned That Kim Jong Un-Backed Hackers Were Behind Years Of Crypto Exploits

Kim Jong Un allegedly resorted to a series of subversive measures aimed at weakening his enemies, it was reported in October 2022. 

The North Korean dictator unleashed an unprecedented wave of cyberattacks against businesses, services, and websites linked to cryptocurrency, as per Japan's national police, Cointelegraph reported at the time.

What Happened: North Korean hacking group Lazarus was named the organization behind several years of cryptocurrency-related cyber attacks in Japan, according to a public advisory statement published by the Japanese government on Oct. 14, 2022.

Cryptocurrencies include digital assets like Bitcoin BTC/USD and Ethereum ETH/USD.

Japan's National Police Agency and Financial Services Agency issued these warnings to the country's crypto-asset businesses and asked them to remain vigilant of “phishing” attacks by a hacking group attempting to steal crypto assets.

According to the report, the warning was part of a “public attribution” for the fifth time in history. 

See More: TOP 5 BITCOIN AND CRYPTO SCAMS

How It Works: Phishing has been a common method of attack used by North Korean hackers, according to the NPA and FSA. These attacks were orchestrated by impersonating company executives in order to entice employees to click malicious links or attachments. 

The police asked companies to keep their “private keys in an offline environment” and to “not open email attachments or hyperlinks carelessly.” 

“This cyber attack group sent phishing emails to employees impersonating executives of the target company [...] through social networking sites with false accounts, pretending to conduct business transactions [...] The cyber-attack group [then] used the malware as a foothold to gain access to the victim's network,” the advisory read.

This story was originally published on Oct. 17, 2022.

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