![]() ![]() ![]() According to North Korean defector Kim Kuk-song, the unit is internally known in North Korea as 414 Liaison Office. The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation says that the Lazarus Group is allegedly a North Korean "state-sponsored hacking organization". The Lazarus Group has strong links to North Korea. Names given by cybersecurity organizations include Hidden Cobra (used by the United States Department of Homeland Security to refer to malicious cyber activity by the North Korean government in general) and Zinc (by Microsoft). Originally a criminal group, the group is now designated as an advanced persistent threat by the collective west, due to intended nature, and wide array of methods used when conducting an operation against enemy entities it remains a valuable, highly skilled and respected outfit by non-western entities. While not much is known about the Lazarus Group, Western researchers have attributed many cyberattacks to them between 20. And with so many other types of threats to navigate, it's easy to imagine that the scare tactics could work often enough to make it all worth attackers' while.Lazarus Group (also known by other monikers such as Guardians of Peace or Whois Team ) is a legal hacker group made up of an unknown number of individuals run by the government of North Korea. While the attacks may not be as crippling for most targets as ransomware can be, they still pose a nagging threat to organizations that don't have adequate DDoS defenses in place. “However, several prominent institutions did report follow-on activity that impacted operations.” “Most institutions that reached the six-day mark did not report any additional activity or the activity was successfully mitigated,” the FBI wrote. It reported that at the beginning of August, thousands of institutions around the world began receiving extortion notes. The FBI reinforced this message in a bulletin at the beginning of September about actors pretending to be Fancy Bear. Though most organizations with resources for digital defense can protect themselves effectively against DDoS attacks, researchers say it’s still important to take these threats seriously and actually invest in strong protections. It’s unclear whether the actors behind this incarnation of Armada Collective have any connection to past generations. For example, Radware noted that in addition to impersonating Fancy Bear and Lazarus Group, attackers have also been going by the name “Armada Collective,” a moniker that extortion DDoS actors have invoked numerous times in recent years. And the attacks likely work at least occasionally, given that attackers keep returning to the technique. Given the spotty effectiveness of extortion DDoS, attackers are invoking the notorious state-backed hacking groups in an attempt to add urgency and stakes. It’s like saying, ‘I might burn your house down next week.’ It’s a lot different when the house is on fire in front of you.” “It’s a threat to do something as opposed to the threat that you’ve already done it. “Generally speaking, DDoS as an extortion method isn’t as profitable as other types of digital extortion,” says Robert McArdle, director of forward-looking threat research at Trend Micro. ![]() But in recent months, criminals have attempted to capitalize on fear about high-profile nation state attacks, combined with anxieties related to rising ransomware attacks, to try to make some extra money. ![]() This type of digital extortion-give us what we’re asking for and we won’t attack you-has resurfaced repeatedly throughout the last decade. The communications threaten that if the target doesn’t send a set number of bitcoin-typically equivalent to tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars-the group will launch powerful distributed denial of service attacks against the victim, walloping the organization with a fire hose of junk traffic strategically directed to knock it offline. In each of them, the senders purport to be from the North Korean government hackers Lazarus Group, or APT38, and Russian state-backed hackers Fancy Bear, or APT28. On Wednesday, the web security firm Radware published extortion notes that had been sent to a variety of companies around the world. A new wave of attacks relies instead on digital extortion-with a side of impersonation. But even as these hacks reach new popularity highs-and new ethical lows-among attackers, it's not the only technique criminals are using to shake down corporate victims. Ransomware attacks that tear through corporate networks can bring massive organizations to their knees. ![]()
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