Seoul police said Saturday that North Korean hackers spent two years stealing sensitive data, including personal financial records, from a South Korean courtroom computer network.
Nuclear-armed North Korea is known to operate an army of thousands of hackers operating both within its largely isolated country and apparently abroad, and has been responsible for several large-scale cyberattacks in the past. is being held responsible.
South Korea's National Police said hackers stole 1,014 gigabytes of data from the court's computer system between January 2021 and February 2023, citing a joint investigation with the country's spy agency and prosecutors.
In a statement sent to AFP, the National Police said the hacker's malware sent the stolen data, including marriage records and personal debt records of South Koreans, to “four domestic and four overseas servers” before the final It was announced that the virus had been detected by antivirus software.
The data breach was attributed to a North Korean hacking group after authorities compared detected malicious programs, server payment details, and IP addresses with those identified in previous North Korean hacking incidents. There was found.
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According to police, authorities in Seoul recovered and identified just 4.7 gigabytes of the stolen data. The data contained 5,171 documents related to personal debt rehabilitation cases, such as marriage certificates and statements about debts and reasons for bankruptcy.
Analysts say North Korea has stepped up cyberattacks in recent years in a bid to earn foreign currency in the face of U.N. sanctions imposed over its nuclear and missile programs.
North Korea stole $1.7 billion in cryptocurrencies in 2022 alone and supported its weapons program in part by gathering information through “malicious cyber activities,” according to Seoul, Tokyo and Washington.
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In February, Seoul's intelligence agency announced that North Korean spies were using LinkedIn to pose as recruiters to lure South Koreans working for defense companies, giving them access to the companies' technical information.
North Korea's cyber program dates back to at least the mid-1990s, but has since grown into a 6,000-strong cyberwarfare force known as Bureau 121, which operates in several countries including Belarus, China, India, Malaysia and Russia, officials said. . In the 2020 US military report.
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