Seoul’s defence technology: According to a Seoul city police officer on Wednesday, South Korean authorities are looking into whether a North Korean hacking cell, which is suspected of stealing data from 14 organisations, received knowledge on defence equipment, including an anti-aircraft laser.
Jeong Jin-ho, the head of a Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency team looking into the case, told Reuters that the investigation, which is being conducted in cooperation with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), is attempting to ascertain the extent of the data obtained by the group known as Andariel.
In 2019, the U.S. Department of the Treasury identified Andariel as a state-sponsored hacking outfit based in North Korea that primarily targets international companies, government organisations, and the defence sector through malevolent cyber activities.
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Seoul’s defence technology
This week, local media revealed that important defence secrets of South Korea were contained in the data cache.
According to a previous police statement, the organisations targeted included pharmaceutical corporations, research centres, and defence industries in South Korea. There were over 250 files, or 1.2 terabytes, of data and information that the hackers had taken, the report stated.
According to investigators, the group set up a proxy server that was accessed 83 times between last December and March in a neighbourhood of Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea.
Using a South Korean hosting provider that rents servers to anonymous clients, the gang was able to access the websites of the corporations and institutions through the server.
In ransomware attacks, the group also demanded 470 million won ($357,866) in bitcoin from three South Korean and international businesses, according to authorities.
Million-dollar cyberattacks have been attributed to North Korean hackers, despite Pyongyang’s prior denials of involvement in cybercrime.
Following the transfer of some bitcoin through her bank account and its withdrawal at a Chinese bank, authorities said that a foreign lady was under investigation in relation to the ransomware attacks. She has refuted any misconduct.
