Korea peninsula - a venue for cyber activity
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Three threads merged and renamed: Korea peninsula - a venue for cyber activity (ends)
Quote:
(Reuters) - South Korean authorities were investigating a hacking attack that brought down the servers of three broadcasters and two major banks on Wednesday, and the army raised its alert level due to concerns of North Korean involvement.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...92J06F20130320
We Hacked North Korea With Balloons and USB Drives
Airborne! *Heh*
Quote:
PAJU, South Korea — At the base of a mountain almost two miles from the North Korean border, the giant helium balloons slowly float upward, borne by a stiff, cold wind. These are not balloons in the conventional sense—the transparent, cylindrical tubes covered in colorful Korean script are more than 20 feet in length and each carries three large bundles wrapped in plastic. The characters painted on one of the balloons reads, “The regime must fall.”
http://www.theatlantic.com/internati...drives/283106/
S. Korea Seeks Cyber Weapons to Target North Korea’s Nukes
Quote:
South Korea is developing offensive cyber weapons to target North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, according to the country’s defense ministry said on Wednesday.
According to Yonhap News Agency, South Korea’s Defense Ministry outlined its long-term cyberpolicy to the parliament’s defense committee on Wednesday. The report stated that, “A strategic plan for the second phase calls for developing cybertools for offense like Stuxnet, a computer virus that damaged Iran’s uranium enrichment facility, to cripple North Korea’s missile and atomic facilities.” Yonhap also quoted an anonymous senior defense official as saying: “Once the second phase plan is established, the cyber command will carry out comprehensive cyberwarfare missions.”
These missions will be carried out under a new Cyber Defense Command that South Korea plans to establish in May. It will operate under the purview of the ROK Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to the report.
http://thediplomat.com/2014/02/s-kor...-koreas-nukes/
N. Korea suspected of hacking S. Korean military’s cyber command
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SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea apparently hacked into the South Korean military’s internal cyber network in the first-ever such breach, officials said Tuesday.
The incident happened in September, but military officials initially played down reports.
An investigation showed some classified military materials had been compromised, the Ministry of National Defense confirmed Tuesday.
https://www.stripes.com/news/n-korea...mmand-1.442833
North Korea hackers steal bitcoin by targeting currency insiders
Quote:
Bitcoin values are skyrocketing, and North Korea appears to be trying to profit from that virtual gold rush. Secureworks reports that the Lazarus Group (a team linked to the North Korean government) has been conducting a spearphishing campaign against cryptocurrency industry workers in a bid to steal bitcoin. The attacks have tried to trick workers into compromising their computers by including a seemingly innocuous Word file that claims they need to enable editing to see the document. If they fell prey, it installed a rogue macro that quietly loaded a PC-hijacking trojan while staffers were busy looking at the bogus document.
Attempts have been taking place as recently as November, but Secureworks' analysts saw activity as early as 2016. The organization adds that the campaign is likely still going, and that this is a preliminary report. You may get a better sense of the scope in the future.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/north...233700627.html
Think we missed this when it was first published...
In light of recent events, from October 2017
The World Once Laughed at North Korean Cyberpower. No More.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/15/w...sony.html?_r=0
This is like a Mel Brooks movie script -
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When North Korean hackers tried to steal $1 billion from the New York Federal Reserve last year, only a spelling error stopped them. They were digitally looting an account of the Bangladesh Central Bank, when bankers grew suspicious about a withdrawal request that had misspelled “foundation” as “fandation.”
Even so, Kim Jong-un’s minions still got away with $81 million in that heist.
"Missed it by *that* much"
Quote:
Then only sheer luck enabled a 22-year-old British hacker to defuse the biggest North Korean cyberattack to date, a ransomware attack last May that failed to generate much cash but brought down hundreds of thousands of computers across dozens of countries — and briefly crippled Britain’s National Health Service.
Money shot. Pay attention, you people in the cheap seats.
Quote:
Their track record is mixed, but North Korea’s army of more than 6,000 hackers is undeniably persistent, and undeniably improving, according to American and British security officials who have traced these attacks and others back to the North.
https://i.imgur.com/TfIa9HG.jpg
From the South China Morning Post
but originally in the Washington Post.
Quote:
Russian military spies hacked several hundred computers used
at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in South Korea, according to anonymous US intelligence officials.
They tried to make it appear as though the intrusion was by North Korea, the officials claim.
Officials in Pyeongchang acknowledged that the Games were hit by a cyberattack during the February 9 opening ceremony but refused to say whether Russia was responsible. That evening there were disruptions to the internet, broadcast systems and the Olympics website. Many attendees were unable to print their tickets, resulting in empty seats.
http://www.scmp.com/news/world/artic...orea-did-it-us