Most Wanted - North Korean Hackers

Uploaded on 2024-07-26 in TECHNOLOGY--Hackers, INTELLIGENCE-Hot Spots-North Korea, GOVERNMENT-Law Enforcement, FREE TO VIEW

The US, South Korea and Britain have accused a North Korea-backed cyber group of carrying out an online espionage campaign to steal military and nuclear secrets. The Andariel group has been compromising organisations around the globe as it attempts to steal highly classified technical information and intellectual property data, according the the British National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).

Andariel's campaigns are carried out to "further the regime's military and nuclear ambitions". Now, the US has placed a $10 million bounty on a North Korean citizen connected with Andariel. He is accused him of attacking health care systems with ransomware as well as hacking NASA and the US Air Force.

The NCSC, along with the FBI in the US and South Korea's national intelligence service, have issued a joint warning and advisory note about Andariel's actions.

They have urged critical infrastructure organisations to "stay vigilant" against such cyber operations. “The US Department of State’s Rewards for Justice program, administered by the Diplomatic Security Service, is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the identification or location of any person who, while acting at the direction or under the control of a foreign government, engages in certain malicious cyber activities against US critical infrastructure in violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act,” says the US Dept of State.

Andariel focuses on targeting defence contractors, military organisations and governments for espionage.
Over time, the group has branched out into other sectors, targeting information on nuclear weapons and, particularly during the pandemic, organisations in the life sciences and pharmaceutical sector, according to research by cyber security company Secureworks.

The reward is for information that could lead to the identification or location of Rim Jong Hyok, who is “associated with a malicious cyber group known as Andariel,” the US State Department says.

The FBI also issued a wanted notice for Rim the same day after a US court in Kansas issued a federal warrant for his arrest on July 24 on charges of conspiracy to commit computer hacking and conspiracy to commit promotion money laundering.

Rim is a member of the Andariel Unit that acts on behalf of North Korea’s military intelligence agency, the Reconnaissance General Bureau, the FBI notice says

According to NCSC director of operations Paul Chichester "The global cyber espionage operation that we have exposed today shows the lengths that North Korean state-sponsored actors are willing to go to pursue their military and nuclear programmes."

Andariel is understood to be a unit of the North Korean military's Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB) 3rd bureau, and the group's malicious cyber activities pose an ongoing threat to critical infrastructure organisations globally, according to the the NCSC.

The group has primarily targeted defence, aerospace, nuclear and engineering organisations, but also acted against the medical and energy sectors. In particular, Andariel has attempted to obtain information including contract specification, design drawings and other secret project details.

Image: FBI

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