A group of North Korean hackers close to Kim Jong-un secretly tracked the emails of former South Korean ministers for several months in 2022, and also stole personal information from officials. Agency reports “Renhap”.
A North Korean hacking organization called Kimsuky is behind numerous phishing emails sent to South Korean officials, including diplomats, according to the country’s police.
“Kimsuky sent malicious emails to 150 diplomats and security experts from April to July 2022 to encourage them to visit hacked phishing sites,” a South Korean police spokesperson said.
A total of nine people in North Korea were confirmed to have their data. The phishing links were followed by three former ministry and deputy ministerial officials, a current government official, four experts and a reporter.
Kimsuky hackers monitored data sent from victims’ email accounts in real time for four to nine months. They managed to steal documents from emails sent as attachments. The attackers also seized the victims’ address books.
The Kimsuky group is best known for hacking Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co., South Korea’s electricity generation agency, in 2014.
Blockchain technology researchers from Elliptic in June 2022 to solveThat hackers from the DPRK are also interested in making money from cryptocurrencies. According to experts, the North Korean hacker group Lazarus is behind the hacking of the Horizon blockchain bridge operating on the Harmony network and the theft of $100 million in cryptocurrency.