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| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| How US authorities tracked down the North Korean hacker behind WannaCry |
| 2018-09-07 |
| [Zednet] US authorities put together four years worth of malware samples, domain names, email and social media accounts to track down one of the Lazarus Group hackers. On September 6, the US Department of Justice formally charged a North Korean programmer for some of the biggest cyber-attacks in recent years. According to a 179-page DOJ indictment, the US believes that Park Jin Hyok, a 34-year-old North Korean, is one of the many individuals behind a long string of malware attacks and intrusions, such as: - The WannaCry ransomware outbreak of 2017; - Attempts of hacking US defense contractor Lockheed Martin in 2016; - The 2016 Bangladesh Central Bank cyber-heist; - The breach at Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2014; - Breaches at US movie theatre chains AMC Theatres and Mammoth Screen in 2014; - A long string of hacks of South Korean news media organizations, banks, and military entities across several years, and; - Hacks of banks all over the world from 2015 through 2018. Also: Free, easy to use, and available to anyone: The powerful malware hiding in plain sight on the open web The DOJ says Park was an active member of a government-sponsored hacking team known in the private cyber-security sector as the Lazarus Group. But in reality, officials say, he was also a government employee working for a government-owned company named Chosun Expo Joint Venture (Chosun Expo hereinafter). Investigators say that Chosun Expo was founded as a joint venture between the South and North Korean governments, and was meant to be an e-commerce and lottery website. South Korean officials pulled out of the deal, but the North Korean government continued to manage the company through various individuals, branching out in different online services, such as online gaming and gambling. The company had offices in North Korea and China, and Park was sent to work for many years in the company's Chinese office in the city of Dalian. There, investigators said he worked under titles of "developer" and "online game developer," listing the ability to code in Java, JSP, PHP, Flash, but also Visual C++, the language in which most Lazarus Group malware was written in. Link to Federal Indictment found here. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #3 Thing is, life in a federal joint is likely on par or better than life in NK. (At least, you're less likely to shot with an anti-aircraft gun.) I realize he's a "special" guy and all that, but the wind shifts fast over there. |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2018-09-07 16:59 |
| #2 All these commies look the same to me. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2018-09-07 13:54 |
| #1 But, but, but..... are you telling me the Russians are NOT responsible ? |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2018-09-07 13:39 |