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OP 06 October, 2019 - 12:08 AM
[Image: north-korea-cyber-attack.jpg]

The United States Treasury Department on Friday announced sanctions against three state-sponsored North Korean hacking groups for conducting several destructive cyberattacks on US critical infrastructure.

Besides this, the hacking groups have also been accused of stealing possibly hundreds of millions of dollars from financial institutions around the world to ultimately fund the North Korean government's illicit weapons and missile programs.

The three North Korean hacking groups in question are the well-known Lazarus Group, and its two sub-groups, Bluenoroff and Andariel.

The sanctions announced by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) claim that all the three groups are "agencies, instrumentalities, or controlled entities of the Government of North Korea" based on their relationship with Pyongyang's central intelligence bureau called the Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB).

Specifically, the sanctions aim to lock any foreign financial institution who knowingly facilitated significant transactions or services for these hacking groups and freeze any asset associated with these three groups.
 
Quote:"We will continue to enforce existing US and UN sanctions against North Korea and work with the international community to improve the cybersecurity of financial networks," Sigal Mandelker, Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence said in a statement.
 Lazarus Group, aka Hidden Cobra
The well-known group out of all is Lazarus group, also known as Hidden Cobra and Guardians of Peace, that has allegedly been associated with several high-profile cyberattacks, including Sony Pictures hack in 2014 and the WannaCry ransomware menace in 2017.

According to the Treasury's OFAC, the destructive WannaCry ransomware attack hit several organizations in at least 150 countries, including the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, and shut down about 300,000 computers.

However, the fatal Wannacry hit was against the UK's National Health Service (NHS), with hospitals that provide intensive care units and other emergency services virtually shut down and over 19,000 appointments canceled, which cost the NHS more than $112 million.

NEWS LINK https://thehackernews.com/2019/09/north-...ttack.html