CYBERWARFARE
The Rise of North Korea's Hacking Army
BUREAU 121
While only a small percentage of North Korea's population has access to the internet, paradoxically, the country has produced some of the world's most proficient hackers.
The Reconnaissance Bureau of the General Staff (RBG), part of which is the infamous Bureau 121, is the intelligence organization responsible for North Korea's cyber warfare initiatives.
PARODY OR TRAGEDY?
The RBG first came to light in 2014, when it allegedly launched a cyberattack on Sony Pictures during the release of 'The Interview', a comedy parodying Kim Jong-Un.
Employees of Sony who logged in on the morning of November 24 were greeted with the sound of digital gunfire and the image of an ominous red skeleton under the title "Hacked By #GOP".
The malware wiped out half of Sony's global digital network.
THE BANGLADESH HEIST
In 2016, RBG's Lazarus Group attacked Bangladesh Bank, which held a foreign currency account with the Federal Reserve bank in New York.
Lazarus hackers sent the Federal Reserve instructions from Bangladesh Bank to make dozens of payments.
These messages seemed so authentic that the Federal Reserve granted the first 5 payment requests. By the end of the operation, around $81 million had been transferred into a different account.
A PARALLEL WAR
Since then, the RBG has been involved in a number of sophisticated cyberattacks-
1.They stole over 200 GB of South Korean Army data in 2016.
2.They paralyzed the United Kingdom's National Health Service in 2017.
3.They hacked into India's nuclear power plant in Kudankulam in 2019.
HAIL HYDRA
North Korea's cybercrime program is hydra-headed, involved in bank heists, cryptocurrency theft, ransomware
deployment, espionage, etc. & doesn't claim responsibility when it strikes.
According to the UN, funds stolen by hackers are spent on the Korean People's Army's weapons program, including its development of nuclear missiles.
A part of North Korea's IT program also exercises control over the population of North Korea.
DIGITAL FOOTPRINTS
Most of the work related to North Korea's cybercrime units can reportedly be traced outside North Korea, in China, and parts of Southeast Asia.
Reports also suggest that the elite cadre of North Korean hackers are based in Pyongyang and use foreign VPNs.
It is also reported that North Korean hackers get some of their training in China and in Russia.
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