The US Department of Justice allegedly sued a North Korean hacker Park Jin Hyok, on September 2018 for numerous cybercrimes in recent years, many of which were hacking operations that shocked the world, including Sony hack and NotPetya cyber attack (The ransomware) last year, $80 million stolen from the Central Bank of Bangladesh and invasion into the Sade system in South Korea.
According to the US indictment,Park Jin Hyok is a staff member of the North Korean Investigation Bureau and has been engaged in cyber attacks and fund fraud for many years. He claimed to be a representative of North Korean hackers who have been hiding in the world internet for years. According to the VOA report, the prosecutor confirmed that he was a member of the hacking team known as the Lazarus Group, which was accused of computer intrusion and cyber fraud in North Korea, the United States and many other countries.
The US government’s allegations against Park Jin Hyok’s 179 pages detail his hacking from 2014 to 2018 and will impose sanctions on him and his company, Chosun Expo Joint Venture. The US Treasury Department even called this company a money bag for his overseas intelligence.
The U.S. Treasury’s indictment against Park Jin-ho also showed that the organization launched a global cyberattack called WannaCry 2.0 in 2017 using ransomware. On May 17, 2017, a monitoring website noticed that the Bitcoin history data in North Korea suddenly increased rapidly from reportedly “0” to hundreds of times a day. What was certain is that North Korea launched a large-scale mining operation against Bitcoin market.
Interestingly on May 12, 5 days before the North Korean initially to mine Bitcoin, WannaCry has broken out. So far, the invasion spreads across nearly 100 countries and regions. The virus will lock private data file on computers and each PC is asked for Bitcoin priced in equivalence of $300 USD to unlock the files.
According to various information disclosed by the media, North Korea has formed a perfect chain and protection mechanism around bitcoin stealing and extortion. It is reported that North Korea’s hacking force has reached 7,000 in 2017. North Korean government not only to mine cryptocurrency, but also to adopt hack techniques for Bitcoin hacking and money laundering. While our eyes are on N.K.’s nuclear weapons, they have quietly set up plans on Bitcoin, eventually.