On Wednesday, the United States Department of Justice announced charges against three North Korean hacker. Making the announcement, Assistant Attorney General John Demers condemned the North Korean program, the most famous branch of which is Lazarus Group. Demers said: "North Korea’s operatives, using keyboards rather than guns, stealing digital wallets of cryptocurrency instead of sacks of cash, are the world’s leading bank robbers." With a country largely sequestered from the international economy, North Korea's hacking program has been a critical source of revenue. Many have linked hacking income from sources like the WannaCry malware and crypto exchange Coincheck with the …

Several United States agencies issued what they call comprehensive guidance on North Korea’s cyber attacks, which have hacked cryptocurrency exchanges and used cryptojacking and ransomware to finance the regime. An international alert In the April 15 advisory, the U.S. Treasury, Department of State, Department of Defense, and the FBI continue a long history of denouncing North Korea’s cyber activities. The new guidance aims to promote international cooperation against North Korea’s work in cyberspace, saying: “It is vital for the international community, network defenders, and the public to stay vigilant and to work together to mitigate the cyber threat posed by …

Leaked code targeting Microsoft Systems which hackers allegedly stole from the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) sparked a fivefold increase in cryptocurrency mining malware infections, Bloomberg reports Wednesday, September 19, citing a new cryptojacking report. Eternal Blue, the tool which can exploit vulnerabilities in Microsoft software, is behind the now-infamous global cyberattacks WannaCry and NotPetya, which continue to cause disruption since they first surfaced in 2017. Bloomberg notes that Eternal Blue was allegedly stolen from the NSA in 2017 by a hacking group called the Shadow Brokers. Hackers have since been using the tool in order to gain access to …

A new cybersecurity report from Kaspersky Labs notes a significant decline in the amount of ransomware targeting Internet users as compared to the growing increase of cryptojacking, in a report published June 27. The Kaspersky Labs report seeks to answer the question: “But if ransomware no longer wears the threat crown, what is the new king?” According to Kaspersky labs, crypto miners were able to gain popularity due to their “discreet and modest way to make money by exploiting users”: “Instead of the large one-off payout achieved with ransomware, cybercriminals employing mining as a tactic can benefit from an inconspicuous, …

According to the FBI IC3 report, they’ve received around 2600 cybercrime complaints including ransomware-related issues. The annual review of cybersecurity threats coming from the law enforcement agency’s, Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), outlines a range of statistics including number of submission complaints received regarding the ransomware. It also includes a breakdown per state. Increasing Bitcoin-related crimes Ransomware is type of a malicious tool that infects one's personal computer and encrypts its data disabling the user from navigating files such as the user's documents. It stops you from using your computer and holds your PC files as “ransom”. A payment is …

Some mainstream media put the blame for the latest WannaCry cyber attack on Bitcoin, thoughtlessly copy-pasting the statements that the cryptocurrency is a convenient tool for terrorists. In reality, the technologies behind Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies might very well become the next level security against future attacks. Ransomware Ransomware attacks of an unprecedented scale put hundreds of thousands of computers at risk. As Bitcoin and Blockchain take the limelight again, Blockchain may offer a viable solution. NSA tools and Windows vulnerability caused the largest cyber attack in history. While Bitcoin and Blockchain can easily be singled out as a scapegoat, …