US government officials have today issued an advisory warning about the threat of North Korea’s hacking operations to the global banking and finance industry.
For reasons not entirely clear, the communiqué was issued by the US State Department, Treasury, the Department of Homeland Security Issues, and the FBI. It said North Korea’s online activities “threaten the United States and countries around the world and, in particular, pose a significant threat to the integrity and stability of the international financial system”.
However, the advisory didn’t appear to be in response to any recent development. Large-scale North Korean hacking operations targeting banks have attracted increasing attention on the international stage in recent years. In 2019, a UN report estimated that North Korea’s cyberattack operations had netted the country $2bn in a year for the country’s weapons programme.
While not always successful, audacious attacks have involved duping parts of the international banking system into thinking hackers are genuine customers and approving the transfer of tens of millions of dollars into accounts they control. Their efforts have also involved tampering with log files and bank transaction records, and derailing hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide in an attempt to hold data ransom.
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