North Korean Hacker Group Targeted Crypto Firm Using LinkedIn Ad: Cybersecurity Report

The North-Korea based Lazarus group of hackers that has been linked to attacks on the central banks of Ecuador, Vietnam and Bangladesh, appears to have targeted a crypto firm in an attack last year, according to a report by cybersecurity firm F-secure. 

• The report said F-Secure’s investigators found operational similarities between this attack and other efforts that have been associated with the Lazarus group. 
  
• Carried out as a phishing attack, the hackers used a LinkedIn message to send over a fake job offer document to a systems administrator at the crypto firm that when downloaded allowed the attackers to get in through the back door. 
  
• Once in, the hackers used backdoor network implants and malware to extract information from the infected computers. According to the report, the attackers also employed Mimikatz, a tailored form of malware used to extract crypto wallet information or bank account details. 
  
• “The evidence also suggests this is part of an ongoing campaign targeting organizations in over a dozen countries,” Matt Lawrence, the Helsinki-based F-secure’s director of detection and response, said in a blog post on the firm’s website. 
  
• Earlier in March, the U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions against two Chinese nationals who had helped hackers from the Lazarus group launder proceeds from an attack on crypto exchange in 2018.