On Friday, September 13, the US Treasury Department issued a statement targeting three groups for cyberattacks. These are the Lazarus Group, Bluenoroff and Andariel, which originate from North Korea. The US Department said that these are mainly cryptocurrency thefts.
Specifically, according to the announcement, these three groups are on the list of those responsible for the theft of $571 million worth of cryptocurrency from five different exchanges in Asia in 2017 and 2018.
A few days earlier, North Korea made an announcement about the second conference to be held next February in Pyongyang, in which it invites the entire community to share information and make deals.
The Treasury Department believes that stolen funds, including cryptocurrency, were used to develop nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. Accordingly, any assets owned or controlled by any of these three groups were automatically blocked and reported to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
The announcement said that US citizens, residents and companies established in the US are prohibited from having any relationship with any of these groups. Anyone who does not comply with the decision will face sanctions. The same will happen to any financial institution in the country that deals with these groups, since they will essentially be completely excluded from the dollar market.
- Lazarus : This is the older of the other two groups. It was involved in the WannaCry ransomware attacks that occurred in 2017.
- Bluenoroff : Detected by cybersecurity teams in 2014 and responsible for both cryptocurrency thefts and the theft of $80 million from the Central Bank of Bangladesh.
- Andariel: First recorded in 2015 and accused of being the group behind the hacking on the personal computer of the South Korean Minister of Defense.
All three groups are controlled by North Korea and are definitely related to cryptocurrency attacks, according to the announcement.
