North Korea Has Hackers for Hire, Agencies Warn – By Mariam Baksh (Nextgov) / April 15 2020
State, Treasury, FBI join CISA in an alert noting the unexpected way the nation-state is using its cyber talent.
Officials and analysts have long associated cyberattacks for financial gain with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea—its economy struggles under the weight of international sanctions—but a Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency advisory warns the regime also conducts attacks on other entities’ behalf.
“DPRK cyber actors have also been paid to hack websites and extort targets for third-party clients,” CISA wrote in an alert it issued Wednesday along with the FBI and the departments of State and Treasury.
Officials did not say why the agencies issued the alert at this particular time, but North Korea’s apparent use of its cyber expertise to serve entities outside the regime—which they noted in “technical details” of the advisory—came as a surprise to seasoned intelligence analysts.
“The most interesting revelation to come out of this morning’s report was that North Korean hackers were offering their services to third parties and being paid to work as hackers-for-hire,” John Hultquist, senior director of intelligence analysis for FireEye Mandiant Threat Intelligence, told Nextgov.
Hultquist said intelligence analysts knew the North Koreans were freelancing software development and other, similar commercial activities, but that they didn’t have any evidence they were executing intrusions and conducting attacks for outside entities.
Continue to article: https://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2020/04/north-korea-has-hackers-hire-agencies-warn/164642/
