The FBI and the US cybersecurity agency have warned of recent North Korean cyberattacks on crypto targets and have advised companies to take steps to protect themselves.
The Cybersecurity and Security Infrastructure Agency (CISA) and the FBI have warned about the Recent cyber attacks linked to hacker team Lazarus, sponsored by the North Korean government, and which aims to steal funds from various cryptocurrency-related projects.
The warning from the two agencies has not focused only on Lazarus. Other groups such as APT38, Stardust Chollima or BlueNoroff have also been named on the list of "advanced persistent threats" (APT). These groups and others like them have been targeting a wide variety of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology organizations and companies. Its objectives include exchanges, decentralized finance protocols and Play To Earn games.
During 2021, the attacks of these hacker groups have managed to steal more than $400 million in crypto assets, according to information from Chainalysis. Although this number has been surpassed by a single attack, which took place in early March 2022 on Ronin Bridge and that he managed to steal more than 600 million dollars.
CISA does not believe that these attacks will reduce anytime soon, as these hacking groups are using advanced phishing techniques and malware to steal crypto funds and exploit the vulnerabilities of these technologies.
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What recommendations have agencies made to prevent cryptocurrency theft?
The CISA and FBI report provides very detailed information on how hackers use social engineering techniques and malware tools such as AppleJeus to attack your crypto targets.
On the other hand, among the recommendations that both agencies have made on how to mitigate the security issues, some simple tasks stand out such as having double authentication systems to access private accounts or make prevention courses which detail the main techniques used by hackers and how to identify these theft attempts.
North Korea and cryptocurrencies
Why is North Korea so interested in stealing cryptocurrencies? For some time now, Kim Jong-un's state suffers serious economic sanctions, as it refuses to dismantle its nuclear weapons program. This has led the Pyongyang government to seek economic refuge in cryptocurrencies to evade these sanctions and continue financing its weapons projects.
According to information from Chainalysis, cyber attacks organized by North Korea managed to steal more than $2021 million in cryptocurrencies in 400. Of the total stolen, the 58% were ETHER tokens from Ethereum, 20% Bitcoin and the remaining 22%, a mix of ERC-20 tokens and other altcoins.
According to the United Nations Security Council, the stolen funds have been used to continue financing North Korea's nuclear program and its purchase of ballistic missiles.
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