A group of cybercriminals called Lazarus, which in 2017 infected computers around the world with the WannaCry virus, stole about 585 million euros in cryptocurrencies. This is the biggest digital scam in history. But who are the Lazari?
In late March, the Lazarus criminal group, working for the North Korean regime, carried out what is already considered the largest known cyber heist. There were about 585 million euros in ethereum cryptocurrencies (the second most popular after bitcoin) from a website linked to the video game Axie Infinity, which the group managed to extort.
The association of the coup with the North Korean faction came from the US (USA). Blockchain consultancy Chainalysis also believes North Korean hackers may have obtained $400 million worth of digital assets last year through various attacks targeting cryptocurrency platforms.
State “sponsorship” of hacker teams is common in some countries such as China, Iran or the US, which use hackers to carry out sabotage or gain valuable information. But in the case of North Korea, things are different. The leader uses hackers to make money in order to survive the tough international sanctions that the country is facing.
Who are the Lazari?
Lazarus are cybercriminals, but they are not just digital thieves. WannaCry, the largest ransomware in history, was launched in 2017, and the United States, United Kingdom, and Microsoft have credited the North Korean group with creating the malware. This virus encrypts files and charges a fee to decrypt them. WannaCry is estimated to have affected around 300,000 computers in 150 countries, including those of the UK’s National Health Service, eventually causing them to crash.
A year earlier, in 2016, the Lazarus group tried to steal $1 billion from the Central Bank of Bangladesh. The scheme consisted of impersonating bank employees and obtaining a license to manage money. The attack failed due to a coding error. Despite this, they managed to take $81 million. The FBI called it the largest cyberattack in history.
There are also suspicions that about $530 million in tokens (digital financial assets) was stolen from the Japanese cryptocurrency exchange portal Coincheck in 2018.
But the Lazarus also carry out sabotage actions. North Korean hackers have been particularly active in 2020, when major pharmaceutical companies have been feverishly working on a Covid-19 vaccine. They attempted to hack into the computers of AstraZeneca employees who were developing the vaccine, and later tried to steal information from Pfizer.
Since North Korea is one of the few countries in the world where the pandemic was contained (until a few weeks ago), the country’s intentions may be related to sabotaging the processes of pharmaceutical companies or selling industrial secrets.
Another one of Lazar’s most notorious scams that had no economic purpose occurred in 2014 and was the first warning that North Koreans weren’t amateurs in the digital realm. The target was Sony Entertainment, the producer of the comedy film The Interview, which is about two people hired to assassinate Kim Jong-un.
A month before the scheduled release date, a group of hackers infected the computers of Sony employees. They succeeded in erasing sensitive company data, publishing salary data, and uncovering incriminating emails from some managers. They also threatened to attack cinemas showing the film, prompting major distributors to pull it off the billboard.
All the money that Lazarus stole has one purpose: to go after Kim Jong-un’s regime. Unlike other advanced persistent threats (APTs), a term by which organized groups of hackers with great capabilities are known, Lazarus operates with the primary goal of financially supporting the North Korean regime.
Typically, APTs — the government-run and sponsored teams that sit at the top of the hacker pyramid — are very well structured and hierarchical, with departments and professionals whose roles are clearly defined, and have the economic resources that allow them to develop sophisticated attacks. , smoothly and quickly. On paper, only the intelligence agencies of the great powers (the US, Russia, or the UK) have more power than the PLA.
Due to the very nature of the Internet, where it is easy to go unnoticed, cyberattacks are very difficult to identify. “APTs are mostly traced through clues provided by the intelligence services and code features, but it can take months to conduct a high-quality forensic analysis that determines authorship,” explains hacker and cybersecurity analyst Deepak Daswani, quoted by El País newspaper. This is why governments use APT to sabotage, spy, or conduct intelligence operations without provoking diplomatic incidents.
In the case of the Lazarus group, the purpose of running ransomware is to raise money to support a regime that, due to international sanctions, has to resort to other means to achieve its goals.
Putin has repeatedly consulted with Russian Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu about the invasion, Europa Press told Ukraine’s chief intelligence director Vadim Skibitsky.
According to Skibitsky, it was the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), which is responsible for counterintelligence and espionage work, that put pressure on Gerasimov and other military agencies to agree to launch an offensive. .
However, according to the Ukrainian intelligence services, the FSB considered that by the end of February sufficient preparations had already been made to guarantee the success of the Russian Armed Forces in a lightning invasion.
However, according to Kyiv, the Russian General Staff provided the Russian troops with supplies and ammunition for only three days, hoping that the offensive would be swift and immediately successful.
The head of Ukrainian intelligence also emphasized the cooperation of local residents, who always provided the Ukrainian authorities with up-to-date information about the Russian army, such as the number of soldiers or the exact location of troops.
The military offensive launched on February 24 by Russia in Ukraine caused at least 6.5 million internally displaced persons and more than 7.8 million refugees to European countries, which is why the UN classifies this migration crisis as the worst in Europe since World War II (1939-1945). gg.). ).
At the moment, 17.7 million Ukrainians are in need of humanitarian assistance, and 9.3 million are in need of food aid and housing.
The UN has presented as confirmed 6,755 civilian deaths and 10,607 wounded since the beginning of the war, stressing that these figures are much lower than the real ones.
A Stockholm court on Monday sentenced a former Swedish intelligence officer to life in prison for spying for Russia, and his brother to at least 12 years in prison. In what is considered one of the most serious cases in Swedish counterintelligence history, much of the trial took place behind closed doors in the name of national security.
According to the prosecution, it was Russian military intelligence, the GRU, who took advantage of the information provided by the two brothers between 2011 and their arrest at the end of 2021.
Peyman Kia, 42, has held many senior positions in the Swedish security apparatus, including the army and his country’s intelligence services (Säpo). His younger brother, Payam, 35, is accused of “participating in the planning” of the plot and of “managing contacts with Russia and the GRU, including passing on information and receiving financial rewards.”
Both men deny the charges, and their lawyers have demanded an acquittal on charges of “aggravated espionage,” according to the Swedish news agency TT.
The trial coincides with another case of alleged Russian espionage, with the arrest of the Russian-born couple in late November in a suburb of Stockholm by a police team arriving at dawn in a Blackhawk helicopter.
Research website Bellingcat identified them as Sergei Skvortsov and Elena Kulkova. The couple allegedly acted as sleeper agents for Moscow, having moved to Sweden in the late 1990s.
According to Swedish press reports, the couple ran companies specializing in the import and export of electronic components and industrial technology.
The man was again detained at the end of November for “illegal intelligence activities.” His partner, suspected of being an accomplice, has been released but remains under investigation.
According to Swedish authorities, the arrests are not related to the trial of the Kia brothers.
“They can strengthen their positions. We understand that this can happen. At the same time, we do not rule out that they will announce a general mobilization,” Danilov said in an interview with the Ukrainska Pravda online publication.
Danilov believed that this mobilization would also be convened “to exterminate as many as possible” of Russian citizens, so that “they would no longer have any problems on their territory.”
In this sense, Danilov also reminded that Russia has not given up on securing control over Kyiv or the idea of the complete “destruction” of Ukraine. “We have to be ready for anything,” he said.
“I want everyone to understand that [os russos] they have not given up on the idea of destroying our nation. If they don’t have Kyiv in their hands, they won’t have anything in their hands, we must understand this,” continued Danilov, who also did not rule out that a new Russian offensive would come from “Belarus and other territories.” .
As such, Danilov praised the decision of many of its residents who chose to stay in the Ukrainian capital when the war broke out in order to defend the city.
“They expected that there would be panic, that people would run, that there would be nothing to protect Kyiv,” he added, referring to President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The military offensive launched on February 24 by Russia in Ukraine caused at least 6.5 million internally displaced persons and more than 7.8 million refugees to European countries, which is why the UN classifies this migration crisis as the worst in Europe since World War II (1939-1945). gg.). ).
At the moment, 17.7 million Ukrainians are in need of humanitarian assistance, and 9.3 million are in need of food aid and housing.
The Russian invasion, justified by Russian President Vladimir Putin on the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russia’s security, was condemned by the international community at large, which responded by sending weapons to Ukraine and imposing political and economic sanctions on Russia.
The UN has presented as confirmed 6,755 civilian deaths and 10,607 wounded since the beginning of the war, stressing that these figures are much lower than the real ones.
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