North Korea Found to be a Part of Major Cyber Hacks
Over the past week, North Korea has been blamed for two major cyber attacks. Cyber security analysts believe North Korea has been stealing the crypto-currency, bitcoins, by executing advanced persistent threats (APTs). APTs are when a hacker gains unauthorized access to a network with the sole purpose of stealing data. Considering the value of bitcoins has almost doubled over the last couple weeks, it’s not shocking cyber criminals are now targeting digital wallets. However, North Korea is taking this to a new level by targeting bitcoin exchange sites and financial institutions.
Beyond stealing digital currencies, the U.S. also released a statement on December 18th claiming North Korea was responsible for the first global ransomware attack, WannaCry. WannaCry was a ransomware campaign that impacted approximately 150 countries around the globe. Collectively the attack created millions, if not billions, of dollars’ worth of damage. The actual cash payouts for the ransom demand was an estimated $200k. Although, businesses had to account for cost associated with downtime, third-party investigations, loss of productivity, and reputation damage.
The U.S. government plans to establish a plan to mitigate the risk of future attacks taking place. MSN reported,
“…the Trump administration will be calling on “all responsible states” to counter North Korea’s ability to conduct cyberattacks and to implement all “relevant” United Nations Security Council sanctions, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter.”
No definitive plans, beyond the above statement have been disclosed. Therefore, it is unclear what measures the U.S. plans to take to counter North Korea’s ability to execute these cyber attacks. All we can hope for, is that is effective.
