U.S. Sanctions North Korean Hacking Groups for Supporting illicit Weapon and Missile Programs

Recently, the U.S. has sanctioned three elements it blamed for executing cyber attacks in the interest of the North Korean government to help Pyongyang’s “illicit weapon and missile programs.” Further, the operation might focus on the Bluenoroff, Lazarus Group, and Andariel, and all are controlled by the Reconnaissance General Bureau, which is North Korea’s primary intelligence department, reported by a news agency.

Treasury under-secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, Sigal Mandelker, stated in a recent statement-

Treasury is taking action against North Korean hacking groups that have been perpetrating cyberattacks to support illicit weapon and missile programs; we will continue to enforce existing U.S. and U.N. sanctions against North Korea and work with the international community to improve cybersecurity of financial networks.

The United Nations was researching 35 cyber attacks suspected in North Korea. The assaults were spread across over 17 nations, around the globe. Further, ten of the thirty-five attacks were straightforwardly focused at South Korea, while India encountered three attacks. The center of the claims against North Korea lies in the nation’s association with a hacking group named ‘Lazarus.

Moreover, Lazarus has been connected with 81 million dollars digital attacks at the Bangladesh national bank in 2014 and 2016 attack on Sony’s Hollywood studio and the 2017 WannaCry ransomware attack on nations which includes the U.S. and Britain. Further, the sanctions suspended the majority of the elements interests and property in the U.S., just as those of different elements that possessed 50 percent or more by these three groups.

In 2018, Bluenoroff had tried to steal more than 1.1 billion dollars from the financial institutions, and expertly completed such operations against banks in countries which included South Korea, India, and Bangladesh, the Treasury stated, referring to industry and press reporting. Regardless, It stated, Andariel, kept focusing on the South Korean government to gather knowledge, and in September 2016, hacked into the Defense Minister of South Korea’s personal computer.

Besides, the massive amount of 2 billion U.S. Dollars is proclaimed to originate from hacking the crypto exchanges. It has been accepted that this sum was taken to escape from the difficult procedure of getting global sanctions.

For several years, North Korea’s intelligence Bureau has intensely focused on targeted people where they can directly drain money, similar to the Bank of Bangladesh in 2016. Recently, the United Nations said that the nation’s propensity for hacking bitcoin exchanges had acquired as much as 2 billion dollars.

Over and above, things have been unsettled with the U.S. too. Even though after three meetings between the U.S. President, Donald Trump and the leader of North Korean, Kim Jong un, Washington has gained ostensible progress towards its objective of getting North Korea to surrender its atomic weapons program.

Trevor Holman

Trevor Holman follows crypto industry since 2011. He joined CryptoNewsZ as a news writer and he provides technical analysis pieces and current market data. He is also an avid trader. In his free time, he loves to explore unexplored places.

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