"North Korean Hacking Group Extorts Cryptocurrency via Telegram"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Dong-pyo] The hacker group 'Lazarus' is reportedly exploiting social networking services such as Telegram and LinkedIn to extort cryptocurrency. Lazarus is known as a hacker group associated with North Korea.

On the 5th, Radio Free Asia (RFA) cited Chainalysis's recently released '2020 Cryptocurrency Crime Report,' stating that Lazarus hacked the Singapore cryptocurrency exchange 'DragonEx' in March last year and siphoned off approximately $7 million (about 8.3 billion KRW).

The report explained that Lazarus used fake accounts and websites created on LinkedIn and Telegram to impersonate identities and approached senior executives of DragonEx, inducing them to install malicious programs to steal DragonEx account information and personal passwords.

Lazarus is known as a North Korean hacking organization suspected of involvement in incidents such as the 2014 U.S. Sony Pictures hack, the 2016 Bangladesh central bank hack, the 2017 WannaCry ransomware distribution, and the 2019 India ATM attack. In September last year, the U.S. Department of the Treasury designated it as a sanctioned entity.