Are North Korean Hackers Targeting iPoker Sites?

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Friday, August 25th, 2017 | Written by Lucy Brown

State sponsored hackers in North Korea are now more actively than ever going after people’s money as opposed to their secrets, says a South Korean government backed report. According to experts in cybersecurity, there has been a definitive change in the hacking styles and attacks that have been coming out of North Korea, which in the past were primarily concerned with causing social disruption, or obtaining secret information.

In fact, those who were targeted were often government agencies’ or media companies’ computer networks, with one of the most commonly known examples of this being the attack on the computers at Sony Pictures Entertainment back in 2014. News of the troubling development and change of approach by hackers was picked up by an article that was recently published by the New York Times, with an extract reading:

“North Korea is now believed to have 1,700 state-sponsored hackers, aided by more than 5,000 supervisors, trainers and other support staff, South Korean officials estimate. The hackers typically do their work abroad, taking legitimate software programming or other jobs in China, Southeast Asia or Europe and waiting for instructions from Pyongyang to mount an assault.”

Money Now the Target

While these sorts of attacks involving state secrets and media companies are still happening, in recent years, North Korean hackers have seemingly gained a greater interest in taking cash. The aforementioned report also said that the hackers linked to North Korea were behind most of the digital theft that targeted Bangladesh’s central bank which resulted in a loss of $81 million. The North Koreans have also made attempts to hack Polish Banks, leaving behind evidence that makes anti-hacking officials believe this group intends to steal more money in the future from over 100 other businesses and banks around the globe.

Identifying the Hackers

Kaspersky Lab, a cybersecurity lab based in Russia, has found a hacking group called Buenoroff that is likely to be responsible for many of the attacks on financial institutions on foreign soils, such as those in Bangladesh and Poland. Buenoroff is said to be a child of Lazarus, or the North Korean hacking group that had previously been a dominant force in instigating the attacks.

Furthermore, the newest report found that there is yet another spinoff of Lazarus, called named Andariel, that is said to be behind a number of hacking attacks on banks, up to seven at the very least, over the last two years. It is believed these two organizations come from the same root, with Buenoroff just focusing on attacking financial firms globally, and Andariel focusing on government and businesses in South Korea using techniques crafted specifically for the company.

Diversification of Crimes

In addition, this report stated that the groups are shifting from attacks on different computer networks to other crimes, such as stealing the data from bank cards, and using it to take cash from customers’ accounts. They are also selling this information on the black market. Their main focus then lies on the financial side of things with virtually all of their attention being focused on financial institutions, instead of any sort of secrets anymore.

In the past, North Korea has allegedly been involved in a range of illegal activities in order to make money, including counterfeiting, drug trafficking and gunrunning, but after United Nations backed sanctions have made that difficult, cyberattacks and ransomware attacks have probably become the preferred methods for paying for the country’s military, its nuclear weapons program, and its leaders Kim Jong-un’ extravagant lifestyle.

North Korea

North Korea is a mysterious and isolated place, and on the world stage, analysts and politicians watch in wonder as they try to figure out what exactly is going on over there. This can be said about these recent revelations, too. Why, for instance, are hackers from the country now solely focusing on stealing money when before their goal was entirely different? Could this perhaps mean that the government sanctioned North Korea hackers could be targeting the gambling industry next? Commenting upon the past activities of Andariel, the New York Times explained that “the group also used malware to cheat at online poker and on other gambling websites.”