North Korean Hackers Reportedly Attack Bitcoin Exchange in South Korea

[real_links]

Cyber hackers from North Korea have reportedly targeted Bitcoin exchanges in South Korea in retaliation to new sanctions imposed by the United Nations against the hermit state as of late August 2017.

According to South Korea’s Cyber Warfare Research Center, at least one Bitcoin exchange was targeted by a hacking attempt that possibly originated from North Korea.

The assault was allegedly distributed through a dedicated email campaign. If the emails are opened by employees of the targeted exchanges, the attached malware will embed itself in the company's’ computer networks. So far, there are no exact figures on the number of exchanges that were hit by the attack.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/north-korean-hackers-reportedly-attack-bitcoin-exchange-in-south-korea

[Hydrogen]

I remember reading a news article from years back which claimed north korea trains 100 hackers every year:

NORTH KOREA'S SCHOOL FOR HACKERS

IN NORTH KOREA'S mountainous Hyungsan region, a military academy specializing in electronic warfare has been churning out 100 cybersoldiers every year for nearly two decades.
Graduates of the elite hacking program at Mirim College are skilled in everything from writing computer viruses to penetrating network defenses and programming weapon guidance systems.

Or so South Korea's government would have the world believe.

Since at least 1994, military and intelligence officials in Seoul have warned of the growing threat posed by the "infowar" academy to the north, which they say was founded in the 1980s and is also known as the Automated Warfare Institute.

Most recently, South Korea's Defense Security Command raised the specter of Mirim at a cybersecurity seminar in mid-May, where a South Korean general noted that North Korea is "reinforcing its cyberterror capabilities."

https://www.wired.com/2003/06/north-koreas-school-for-hackers/

It wouldn't be that surprising if north korea is investing heavily in some type of electronic warfare program. The entire country is a rat's maze of underground tunnel networks designed to survive a nuclear apocalypse.

[phr0stbyt3]

You can't really do anything about this though trading volumes in south korea is way above expectations north korea has been causing major issues to the country for a really long time and not just of bitcoin but they are even hacking their automated trains , their high tech country. North korea didn't have much threat to the world before but now this situation keeps getting worse

[Cloud27]

The North Koreans easily hacked an exchange system in South Korea, this is a clear sign not to save all your crypto currencies in an exchange. The North Koreans easily grab some bitcoin money, which they can use it to build another missile or war weapons.

[szpalata]

The North Koreans easily hacked an exchange system in South Korea, this is a clear sign not to save all your crypto currencies in an exchange. The North Koreans easily grab some bitcoin money, which they can use it to build another missile or war weapons.

I guess South Korea ought to sit-up and protect its citizenry financially too by securing their online exchanges so that such flaws wouldn't be exploited by these motivated criminals from the north.

[btc_angela]

I remember reading a news article from years back which claimed north korea trains 100 hackers every year:

NORTH KOREA'S SCHOOL FOR HACKERS

IN NORTH KOREA'S mountainous Hyungsan region, a military academy specializing in electronic warfare has been churning out 100 cybersoldiers every year for nearly two decades.
Graduates of the elite hacking program at Mirim College are skilled in everything from writing computer viruses to penetrating network defenses and programming weapon guidance systems.

Or so South Korea's government would have the world believe.

Since at least 1994, military and intelligence officials in Seoul have warned of the growing threat posed by the "infowar" academy to the north, which they say was founded in the 1980s and is also known as the Automated Warfare Institute.

Most recently, South Korea's Defense Security Command raised the specter of Mirim at a cybersecurity seminar in mid-May, where a South Korean general noted that North Korea is "reinforcing its cyberterror capabilities."

https://www.wired.com/2003/06/north-koreas-school-for-hackers/

It wouldn't be that surprising if north korea is investing heavily in some type of electronic warfare program. The entire country is a rat's maze of underground tunnel networks designed to survive a nuclear apocalypse.

Yes, it's been going on for years that North Korean government allegedly training hackers in preparation of a cyber attack war. And I have read that they are now really targeting South Korean, specially like exchanges and other military institutions. We have even heard that Kim has a lot of bitcoin stash somewhere. This could be true as evident of an attack is proven to be really true by the North Koreans.

 So I guess for the South then, be very careful of any suspicious email and improved the security of your Exchanges to prevent any possible hack for the other side.

The North Koreans easily hacked an exchange system in South Korea, this is a clear sign not to save all your crypto currencies in an exchange. The North Koreans easily grab some bitcoin money, which they can use it to build another missile or war weapons.

That is why we have preached here not to put all your investment in a exchange because first of all you don't have control of the private key and next this kind of scenario, a possible hack that will wipe out all of your funds.

[joshy23]

The North Koreans easily hacked an exchange system in South Korea, this is a clear sign not to save all your crypto currencies in an exchange. The North Koreans easily grab some bitcoin money, which they can use it to build another missile or war weapons.

I guess South Korea ought to sit-up and protect its citizenry financially too by securing their online exchanges so that such flaws wouldn't be exploited by these motivated criminals from the north.

I don't think South Koreans exchanges are not doing anything about it. For sure their government have warned them already to beef up security and we will do really hope they won't be successful in the future. Because this will put a lot of negative news about bitcoin, and we don't want the steam to be halted because of this such event.

Yes, its possible that the hack bitcoin could easily be used to buy or build weapons of mass destruction as we all know that that leader is lunatic and very eager to launch a war specially with the West. Cyber terrorism will be really the latest tool that are are going to see in the future.

[entrepmind23]

That is why we have preached here not to put all your investment in a exchange because first of all you don't have control of the private key and next this kind of scenario, a possible hack that will wipe out all of your funds.

This is one of my fears when I have coins in an exchange because we never know what will happen. It has happened before and there is a possibility it might happen again (I hope not) but to reduce the risk, we should only put coins in an exchange that we can afford to lose and then have the security features maximized so as to prevent something like that happening.

I have also read somewhere that if you wanted to be more secure then you can have a separate gadget intended only for crypto. Your only purpose for using that gadget is for trading or for other things that is related to crypto and nothing else. You will access all other activities except crypto in other gadgets like emails, games, watching movies etc.

[Sithara007]

This is ridiculous. Why should the government backed hackers in North Korea attack a private entity in South Korea (instead of attacking some of the government owned banks)? Also even if they manage to steal the BTC, how they are going to convert them to fiat in North Korea?

[Strongkored]

This fact proves that North Korea is one of the most dangerous countries, because it could be for the next time not just the South Korea exchange being targeted but also in other countries that have bad relations with it, it becomes a lesson for us not to put a large amount of our funds too long on the exchange, and perhaps decentralized exchange can be another option for this.

[Wind_FURY]

Cyber hackers from North Korea have reportedly targeted Bitcoin exchanges in South Korea in retaliation to new sanctions imposed by the United Nations against the hermit state as of late August 2017.

That is very counterproductive on North Korea's part. In my own opinion, if North Korea really wanted to go around those economic sanctions, they should start hoarding and getting involved in all aspects of cryptocurrencies themselves. Especially the mining aspect.

Bitcoin is a powerful tool for peer to peer, decentralized and censorship resistant value transfer. If Kim Jong Un had any brains, he should form a research group just for cryptocurrencies and how to utilize them for the good of their country.

[Schuyler]

If this is indeed true, it’s not that surprising since that wannacry ransomware from a few months ago was believed to have originated from  North Korea as well. On top of that, they are launching missiles every now and then. Such a dysfunctional country with so much bad publicity, largely because of their leader who acts like a clown.

[squatter]

This is ridiculous. Why should the government backed hackers in North Korea attack a private entity in South Korea (instead of attacking some of the government owned banks)? Also even if they manage to steal the BTC, how they are going to convert them to fiat in North Korea?

We don't know for sure whether the government was behind the attack or even if it originated in North Korea. And from their perspective, why restrict attacks to government entities, if economic warfare can weaken the state?

They have no need to convert the BTC if this was government-sponsored. The object would be either a) economic warfare, b) accumulate BTC, or c) both.

[mk4]

Also even if they manage to steal the BTC, how they are going to convert them to fiat in North Korea?

Hmm. Good question. Possibly using offshore bank accounts? They still probably couldn't convert that country's currency to North Korean Won though, since I don't think foreign money exchanges even support NKW. Though I don't think converting it to NKW would matter if it really was government funded.

With that said, South Korea surely needs to step up their game. North Korea is pretty much toying with them.

[Netnox]

Also even if they manage to steal the BTC, how they are going to convert them to fiat in North Korea?

Hmm. Good question. Possibly using offshore bank accounts? They still probably couldn't convert that country's currency to North Korean Won though, since I don't think foreign money exchanges even support NKW. Though I don't think converting it to NKW would matter if it really was government funded.

With that said, South Korea surely needs to step up their game. North Korea is pretty much toying with them.

I heard that almost all of the identified North Korean offshore bank accounts are frozen (as a result of the UN sanctions). Converting BTC to fiat using these accounts would be very risky for the North Koreans. The FBI can trace these transactions and it will result in the funds getting seized.

[franco123]

This is what I am talking about what I talk about the risk on investing and buying Bitcoins. The number one risk of all, hackers. First of all, it is hard to avoid and secure Bitcoin wallet accounts from hackers if they already got in to your computer system. And from there, they can easily find the access for others especially thos who are nearby. It only takes them a matter of time to instantly transfer your Bitcoins into their account if they already got in to the system by first determining your IP address. I learned this from an IT expert friend way back in high school.

[Manuj]

North Korean are doing all sorts of stupid things. These are all expected from the people and its country from leaders down to the people. The sad thing is that the government seems to be the one in charge of all these. The leaders, I mean, the leader--they only have one god kim-- are putting the country. But I don't think this is true.

[Mometaskers]

Just crazy. Are they running out of money to build nukes? That's what happens when you mismanage your country. They have resources to build nukes and launch cyber attacks but can't do anything about... about EVERYTHING else. They allow in the Chinese to mine their resources so they can buy food from China.

You think they're planning to use those stolen bitcoins to buy stuff? I mean, it's pointless to convert it to fiat in North Korea. Maybe they'll use it to buy stuff from China? That's pretty much the only place they can buy physical items using bitcoins.

[warrior333]

If it became known that hackers from North Korea that means it is bad hackers. I think that politics intervened. Now those who benefits to accuse North Korea, and those who benefit from another thing blamed Russia. Hackers have no nationality. They attack from anywhere.

[The Young Turk]

I don't buy it. What's the total count of computers that connect into Internet in North Korea? (AFAIK it was only 4).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_in_North_Korea#Service_providers_and_access

I think it's not N.Koreans, it's Chineese...