- Google’s threat information group has identified several threats from DPRK
- North Korean hackers make up as workers to get jobs in Western companies
- This brings a number of security threats for businesses
A new report from Google’s threat information group has warned of an extension of operations from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea).
The researchers claim an increasing number of Western companies that accidentally hire North Korean IT workers who raise money for the regime.
These workers are a serious security threat to organizations that risk data theft, disturbance and espionage.
Extortion tactics
This is part of a much wider campaign from DPRK that has seen state-sponsored threat players infiltrate dozens of Fortune 100 companies, resulting in as much as $ 6.8 million in revenue earned to DPRK.
This led to the US Justice Department arresting several US citizens who ran ‘portable tasks’, which houses us equipment sent to new employees – the facilitators installed remote access technology that allowed workers from DPRK to log in.
Google also located facilitators in both US and British sharing equipment, indicating a “complex logistic chain”.
A study of the campaign’s infrastructure revealed a ‘increased interest in Europe’ and a global expansion of tactics from DPRK and an increased volume of extortion attempts.
The threat information group identified cases where IT recently fired IT workers “threatened to release their former employers’ sensitive data or give them a competitor” including proprietary data and source code for internal projects.
To combat this phenomenon, Google reports that many companies are driving your own device policy, but these often lack traditional security and logging tools and make threatening much more difficult, which dramatically increases a risk in undetected malicious activity.
“The increase in extortion campaigns coincided with increased US law enforcement measures against DPRK IT workers, including disruptions and accusations. This suggests a potential joint where pressure on these workers may cause them to adopt more aggressive measures to maintain their income.
