As missile tests escalate, North Korea plays cyberespionage long game

[Boats]

As missile tests escalate, North Korea plays cyberespionage long game
By: Elizabeth Beattie - Staff Writer for The JapanTimes - 03-29-23
Re: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/20...ionage-report/

Photo link: https://cdn-japantimes.com/wp-conten...le_218654.jpeg
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspects nuclear warheads at an undisclosed location in this undated still image. Pyongyang has unleashed a raft of digital weapons ultimately aimed at supporting its nuclear ambitions, a new report has said. | KRT / REUTERS TV / VIA REUTERS

Masquerading as media, elite universities and diplomatic and defense figures, North Korean actors have targeted governments, think tanks and businesses in the U.S., Japan, South Korea and Europe as part of an evolving, long-term cyberespionage strategy.

While missiles are fired off from the peninsula with increasing regularity, a raft of digital weapons ultimately aimed at supporting Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions are being waged by APT43, the Google-owned threat intelligence firm Mandiant said in a report released Tuesday.

APT43 is an umbrella term for activities sometimes attributed to groups “Kimsuky” or “Thallium.”

The report provides a window into Pyongyang’s tactical shifts and evolving strategy since 2018, detailing a focus prior to October 2020 on South Korean and U.S. government offices, diplomatic organizations and think tanks with the aim of gathering information on foreign policy and security issues affecting the Korean Peninsula.

From October 2020 through October 2021, APT43 largely targeted health-related areas and pharmaceutical companies, in what researchers suggest was a bid to support the country’s COVID-19 response.

North Korea’s closed borders and tightly controlled media have made the impact of COVID-19 on the country difficult to map. As of March 21, the country had not reported a single confirmed case or death to the World Health Organization, although in May 2022 state media in the country registered more than 296,000 new cases of “fever,” with leader Kim Jong Un acknowledging the outbreak was causing a “great upheaval.”

2nd photo link: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-cont...le_218656.jpeg
A fire assault drill at an undisclosed location in North Korea on March 10 | KCNA / VIA REUTERS

In early 2022, a campaign emerged to capture the credentials of academics, journalists, politicians and bloggers primarily residing in South Korea, while by the middle of the year the strategy had pivoted again — this time toward credential theft of South Korean social media users and bloggers with links to human rights, academia, religion and cryptocurrency.

In order to achieve its aims, APT43 created “numerous spoofed and fraudulent (but convincing) personas for use in social engineering,” the report said.

The broader strategy appears to be focused on collecting strategic intelligence related to key areas including sanctions policy and diplomatic relations, with the ultimate aim of determining how these may impact North Korea’s nuclear aims.

Siphoning and then laundering cryptocurrency was identified as another component of the strategy. According to the report, APT43 uses mining to launder finances gained via crypto hacks.

Researchers have long tracked North Korea’s circumvention of sanctions in order to funnel money to its closed-off economy, with crypto theft emerging as a favored approach. In 2022, hackers from the country stole an estimated $1.7 billion worth of cryptocurrency across multiple hacks, according to blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis.

Pyongyang has launched a flurry of nuclear-capable missiles this year, casting unease across East Asia. On Tuesday, the country unveiled new, smaller nuclear warheads as Kim continues his push to grow his weapons arsenal.

Tags: NORTH KOREA, INTERNET, HACKING, CYBERSECURITY, CRYPTOCURRENCIES, TECH
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Personal note: This is the Wild Card currently displaying his hardware. This guy
is just itching to let loose his missiles and disrupt US and NATO's eyes in the sky!
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