North Korean Hackers Hijack Antivirus Updates For Malware Delivery

It's 2024 And North Korea's Kimsuky Gang Is Exploiting Windows Help Files

Kimsuky Gang Joins Rush To Exploit New ScreenConnect Bugs

Windows Zero Day Exploited By North Korean Hackers In Rootkit Attack

New Report Reveals North Korean Hackers Targeting Defense Firms Worldwide

North Korean state-sponsored threat actors have been attributed to a cyber espionage campaign targeting the defense sector across the world. In a joint advisory published by Germany's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) and South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS), the agencies said the goal of the attacks is to plunder advanced defense technologies in a "

Microsoft, OpenAI Reveal ChatGPT Use By State-Sponsored Hackers

Korean Eggheads Crack Rhysida Ransomware And Release Free Decryptor Tool

Kimsuky's New Golang Stealer 'Troll' and 'GoBear' Backdoor Target South Korea

The North Korea-linked nation-state actor known as Kimsuky is suspected of using a previously undocumented Golang-based information stealer called Troll Stealer. The malware steals "SSH, FileZilla, C drive files/directories, browsers, system information, [and] screen captures" from infected systems, South Korean cybersecurity company S2W said in a new technical report. Troll

North Korean Hackers Weaponize Research Lures to Deliver RokRAT Backdoor

Media organizations and high-profile experts in North Korean affairs have been at the receiving end of a new campaign orchestrated by a threat actor known as ScarCruft in December 2023. "ScarCruft has been experimenting with new infection chains, including the use of a technical threat research report as a decoy, likely targeting consumers of threat intelligence like cybersecurity

North Korea's Cyber Heist: DPRK Hackers Stole $600 Million in Cryptocurrency in 2023

Threat actors affiliated with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (also known as North Korea) have plundered at least $600 million in cryptocurrency in 2023. The DPRK "was responsible for almost a third of all funds stolen in crypto attacks last year, despite a 30% reduction from the USD 850 million haul in 2022," blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs said last week. "Hacks

SpectralBlur: New macOS Backdoor Threat from North Korean Hackers

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new Apple macOS backdoor called SpectralBlur that overlaps with a known malware family that has been attributed to North Korean threat actors. “SpectralBlur is a moderately capable backdoor that can upload/download files, run a shell, update its configuration, delete files, hibernate, or sleep, based on commands issued from the [

SpectralBlur macOS Backdoor Linked To North Korea

North Korean Hackers Are Developing Malware In Dlang

SugarGh0st RAT Use Targets South Korea And Uzbekistan

U.S. Treasury Sanctions North Korean Kimsuky Hackers and 8 Foreign-Based Agents

The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Thursday sanctioned the North Korea-linked adversarial collective known as Kimsuky as well as eight foreign-based agents who are alleged to have facilitated sanctions evasion. The agents, the Treasury said, helped in "revenue generation and missile-related technology procurement that support the DPRK's

N. Korean Hackers 'Mixing' macOS Malware Tactics to Evade Detection

The North Korean threat actors behind macOS malware strains such as RustBucket and KANDYKORN have been observed "mixing and matching" different elements of the two disparate attack chains, leveraging RustBucket droppers to deliver KANDYKORN. The findings come from cybersecurity firm SentinelOne, which also tied a third macOS-specific malware called ObjCShellz to the RustBucket campaign

Do Kwon's Extradition Approved, But Destination Is Unclear

North Korean Software Supply Chain Attack Hits North America, Asia

N. Korean Hackers Distribute Trojanized CyberLink Software in Supply Chain Attack

A North Korean state-sponsored threat actor tracked as Diamond Sleet is distributing a trojanized version of a legitimate application developed by a Taiwanese multimedia software developer called CyberLink to target downstream customers via a supply chain attack. "This malicious file is a legitimate CyberLink application installer that has been modified to include malicious code that downloads,

North Korean Hackers Pose as Job Recruiters and Seekers in Malware Campaigns

North Korean threat actors have been linked to two campaigns in which they masquerade as both job recruiters and seekers to distribute malware and obtain unauthorized employment with organizations based in the U.S. and other parts of the world. The activity clusters have been codenamed Contagious Interview and Wagemole, respectively, by Palo Alto Networks Unit 42. While the first set of attacks

US Seizes 17 North Korean Money Funneling Sites

U.S. DoJ Cracks Down on North Korean IT Scammers Defrauding Global Businesses

The U.S. government has announced the seizure of 17 website domains used by North Korean information technology (IT) workers as part of an illicit scheme to defraud businesses across the world, evade sanctions, and fund the country's ballistic missile program. The Department of Justice (DoJ) said the U.S. confiscated approximately $1.5 million of the revenue that these IT workers collected from

Microsoft Warns of North Korean Attacks Exploiting JetBrains TeamCity Flaw

North Korean threat actors are actively exploiting a critical security flaw in JetBrains TeamCity to opportunistically breach vulnerable servers, according to Microsoft. The attacks, which entail the exploitation of CVE-2023-42793 (CVSS score: 9.8), have been attributed to Diamond Sleet (aka Labyrinth Chollima) and Onyx Sleet (aka Andariel or Silent Chollima). It's worth noting that both the

Lazarus Group Targeting Defense Experts with Fake Interviews via Trojanized VNC Apps

The North Korea-linked Lazarus Group (aka Hidden Cobra or TEMP.Hermit) has been observed using trojanized versions of Virtual Network Computing (VNC) apps as lures to target the defense industry and nuclear engineers as part of a long-running campaign known as Operation Dream Job. "The threat actor tricks job seekers on social media into opening malicious apps for fake job interviews," Kaspersky

North Korea's Lazarus Group Launders $900 Million in Cryptocurrency

As much as $7 billion in cryptocurrency has been illicitly laundered through cross-chain crime, with the North Korea-linked Lazarus Group linked to the theft of roughly $900 million of those proceeds between July 2022 and July of this year. "As traditional entities such as mixers continue to be subject to seizures and sanctions scrutiny, the crypto crime displacement to chain- or asset-hopping

South Korea Accuses North Of Phish And Ships Attack

Multiple Crypto Raids Net Lazarus Group $290m In 15 Weeks

North Korea's Lazarus Group Suspected in $31 Million CoinEx Heist

The North Korea-affiliated Lazarus Group has stolen nearly $240 million in cryptocurrency since June 2023, marking a significant escalation of its hacks. According to multiple reports from Certik, Elliptic, and ZachXBT, the infamous hacking group is said to be suspected behind the theft of $31 million in digital assets from the CoinEx exchange on September 12, 2023. The crypto heist aimed at

North Korean Hackers Steal $53 Million In Cryptocurrency From CoinEx

Active North Korean Campaign Targets Security Researchers

Who Pulled Off A $41M Online Casino Heist? North Korea, FBI Says

North Korean Hackers Exploit Zero-Day Bug to Target Cybersecurity Researchers

Threat actors associated with North Korea are continuing to target the cybersecurity community using a zero-day bug in an unspecified software over the past several weeks to infiltrate their machines. The findings come from Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG), which found the adversary setting up fake accounts on social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and Mastodon to forge

North Korea Hackers Going After Russian Targets, Microsoft Says

Researchers Warn of Cyber Weapons Used by Lazarus Group's Andariel Cluster

The North Korean threat actor known as Andariel has been observed employing an arsenal of malicious tools in its cyber assaults against corporations and organizations in the southern counterpart. “One characteristic of the attacks identified in 2023 is that there are numerous malware strains developed in the Go language,” the AhnLab Security Emergency Response Center (ASEC) said in a deep dive

VMConnect Campaign Linked To North Korea's Lazarus Group

New SuperBear Trojan Emerges in Targeted Phishing Attack on South Korean Activists

A new phishing attack likely targeting civil society groups in South Korea has led to the discovery of a novel remote access trojan called SuperBear. The intrusion singled out an unnamed activist, who was contacted in late August 2023 and received a malicious LNK file from an address impersonating a member of the organization, non-profit entity Interlabs said in a new report. The LNK file, upon

North Korean Hackers Deploy New Malicious Python Packages in PyPI Repository

Three additional rogue Python packages have been discovered in the Package Index (PyPI) repository as part of an ongoing malicious software supply chain campaign called VMConnect, with signs pointing to the involvement of North Korean state-sponsored threat actors. The findings come from ReversingLabs, which detected the packages tablediter, request-plus, and requestspro. First disclosed at the

North Korean APT Hacks Internet Infrastructure Provider Via ManageEngine Flaw

Lazarus Group Exploits Critical Zoho ManageEngine Flaw to Deploy Stealthy QuiteRAT Malware

The North Korea-linked threat actor known as Lazarus Group has been observed exploiting a now-patched critical security flaw impacting Zoho ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus to distribute a remote access trojan called such as QuiteRAT. Targets include internet backbone infrastructure and healthcare entities in Europe and the U.S., cybersecurity company Cisco Talos said in a two-part analysis 

North Korean Hackers Targeted Russian Missile Developer

STARK#MULE Targets Koreans with U.S. Military-themed Document Lures

An ongoing cyber attack campaign has set its sights on Korean-speaking individuals by employing U.S. Military-themed document lures to trick them into running malware on compromised systems. Cybersecurity firm Securonix is tracking the activity under the name STARK#MULE. The scale of the attacks is currently not known, and it's not clear if any of these attack attempts turned out to be

North Korean Nation-State Actors Exposed in JumpCloud Hack After OPSEC Blunder

North Korean nation-state actors affiliated with the Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB) have been attributed to the JumpCloud hack following an operational security (OPSEC) blunder that exposed their actual IP address. Google-owned threat intelligence firm Mandiant attributed the activity to a threat actor it tracks under the name UNC4899, which likely shares overlaps with clusters already

North Korean Hackers Breached A US Tech Company To Steal Crypto

North Korean State-Sponsored Hackers Suspected in JumpCloud Supply Chain Attack

An analysis of the indicators of compromise (IoCs) associated with the JumpCloud hack has uncovered evidence pointing to the involvement of North Korean state-sponsored groups, in a style that's reminiscent of the supply chain attack targeting 3CX. The findings come from SentinelOne, which mapped out the infrastructure pertaining to the intrusion to uncover underlying patterns. It's worth noting

North Korean Satellite Had No Military Unit For Spying, Says South Korea

North Korean Hacker Group Andariel Strikes with New EarlyRat Malware

The North Korea-aligned threat actor known as Andariel leveraged a previously undocumented malware called EarlyRat in phishing attacks, adding another piece to the group's wide-ranging toolset. "Andariel infects machines by executing a Log4j exploit, which, in turn, downloads further malware from the command-and-control (C2) server," Kaspersky said in a new report. Also called Silent Chollima

North Korean APT Targets Defectors, Activists With Infostealer Malware

Kimsuky Targets Think Tanks and News Media with Social Engineering Attacks

The North Korean nation-state threat actor known as Kimsuky has been linked to a social engineering campaign targeting experts in North Korean affairs with the goal of stealing Google credentials and delivering reconnaissance malware. "Further, Kimsuky's objective extends to the theft of subscription credentials from NK News," cybersecurity firm SentinelOne said in a report shared with The

North Korea's Kimsuky Group Mimics Key Figures in Targeted Cyber Attacks

U.S. and South Korean intelligence agencies have issued a new alert warning of North Korean cyber actors' use of social engineering tactics to strike think tanks, academia, and news media sectors. The "sustained information gathering efforts" have been attributed to a state-sponsored cluster dubbed Kimsuky, which is also known by the names APT43, ARCHIPELAGO, Black Banshee, Emerald Sleet (

N. Korean ScarCruft Hackers Exploit LNK Files to Spread RokRAT

Cybersecurity researchers have offered a closer look at the RokRAT remote access trojan that's employed by the North Korean state-sponsored actor known as ScarCruft. "RokRAT is a sophisticated remote access trojan (RAT) that has been observed as a critical component within the attack chain, enabling the threat actors to gain unauthorized access, exfiltrate sensitive information, and potentially

North Korean Kimsuky Hackers Strike Again with Advanced Reconnaissance Malware

The North Korean advanced persistent threat (APT) group known as Kimsuky has been observed using a piece of custom malware called RandomQuery as part of a reconnaissance and information exfiltration operation. "Lately, Kimsuky has been consistently distributing custom malware as part of reconnaissance campaigns to enable subsequent attacks," SentinelOne researchers Aleksandar Milenkoski and Tom

North Korean Hackers Stole $721 Million In Cryptocurrency From Japan

N. Korean Kimsuky Hackers Using New Recon Tool ReconShark in Latest Cyberattacks

The North Korean state-sponsored threat actor known as Kimsuky has been discovered using a new reconnaissance tool called ReconShark as part of an ongoing global campaign. "[ReconShark] is actively delivered to specifically targeted individuals through spear-phishing emails, OneDrive links leading to document downloads, and the execution of malicious macros," SentinelOne researchers Tom Hegel

North Korea's ScarCruft Deploys RokRAT Malware via LNK File Infection Chains

The North Korean threat actor known as ScarCruft started experimenting with oversized LNK files as a delivery route for RokRAT malware as early as July 2022, the same month Microsoft began blocking macros across Office documents by default. "RokRAT has not changed significantly over the years, but its deployment methods have evolved, now utilizing archives containing LNK files that initiate

US Charges North Korean In Crypto Laundering Conspiracies

Lazarus Subgroup Targeting Apple Devices with New RustBucket macOS Malware

A financially-motivated North Korean threat actor is suspected to be behind a new Apple macOS malware strain called RustBucket. "[RustBucket] communicates with command and control (C2) servers to download and execute various payloads," Jamf Threat Labs researchers Ferdous Saljooki and Jaron Bradley said in a technical report published last week.  The Apple device management company attributed it

Lazarus X_TRADER Hack Impacts Critical Infrastructure Beyond 3CX Breach

Lazarus, the prolific North Korean hacking group behind the cascading supply chain attack targeting 3CX, also breached two critical infrastructure organizations in the power and energy sector and two other businesses involved in financial trading using the trojanized X_TRADER application. The new findings, which come courtesy of Symantec's Threat Hunter Team, confirm earlier suspicions that the

N.K. Hackers Employ Matryoshka Doll-Style Cascading Supply Chain Attack on 3CX

The supply chain attack targeting 3CX was the result of a prior supply chain compromise associated with a different company, demonstrating a new level of sophistication with North Korean threat actors. Google-owned Mandiant, which is tracking the attack event under the moniker UNC4736, said the incident marks the first time it has seen a "software supply chain attack lead to another software

Meet APT43: The Group That Hacks, Spies, And Steals For North Korea's Ruling Elite

North Korean APT43 Group Uses Cybercrime to Fund Espionage Operations

A new North Korean nation-state cyber operator has been attributed to a series of campaigns orchestrated to gather strategic intelligence that aligns with Pyongyang's geopolitical interests since 2018. Google-owned Mandiant, which is tracking the activity cluster under the moniker APT43, said the group's motives are both espionage- and financially-motivated, leveraging techniques like credential