South Korean bitcoin attacks ‘were made by the North Korean hackers that attacked Sony’

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A man watches a screen showing the prices of bitcoin at a virtual currency exchange office in Seoul, South Korea, on January 16, 2018. Prices of bitcoin and other digital currencies have skidded after South Korea's top financial policymaker said a crackdown on trading of cryptocurrencies was still possible. Photo: AP

Published: 1:30am, 17 Jan 2018Updated: 9:17pm, 5 Feb 2018

Cyber attacks on bitcoin and other crypto currency in South Korea were performed by the same North Korean hackers associated with the 2014 Sony Pictures data theft, US-based researchers claim.

Lazarus Group, an organisation thought be tied to the North Korean government, was behind the attacks that occurred in the weeks leading up to the opening of talks with South Korea, Insikt, a research team at Recorded Future, said on Tuesday.

The hackers aunched a so-called spear-phishing campaign against bitcoin and other crypto users, the cybersecurity company said in a new report.

According to the report, Insikt found technical similarities between those incursions and other North Korean-linked activities, including the data heist at Sony Pictures and the WannaCry ransomware attack, in which victims were forced to pay hackers in bitcoin.

File photo of bitcoin mining computers are pictured in Bitmain's mining farm near Keflavik, Iceland, on June 4, 2016. A North Korean hacking group is said to be behind attacks on South Korean cryptocurrency users. Photo: Reuters

“This late-2017 campaign is a continuation of North Korea’s interest in cryptocurrency, which we now know encompasses a broad range of activities including mining, ransomware, and outright theft,” the report says.

Last nonth, the owner of bitcoin exchange Youbit said it would close and enter bankruptcy proceedings after a cyberattack claimed 17 per cent of its total assets. It was also hit by an attack in April that local media linked to North Korea.