US CHARGES 3 NORTH KOREAN PROGRAMMERS FOR MASSIVE HACKING SPREE

WASHINGTON: The United States has charged three North Korean computer programmers with a massive hacking spree aimed at stealing more than $1.3 billion in money and cryptocurrency, affecting companies from banks to Hollywood movie studios, the department of justice said on Wednesday.

The indictment alleges that Jon Chang Hyok, 31, Kim Il, 27, and Park Jin Hyok, 36, stole money while working for North Korea’s military intelligence services. Park had previously been charged in a complaint unsealed in 2018.

The justice department said the hackers were responsible for a wide range of criminal activity and high-profile intrusions, including a retaliatory 2014 attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment for producing The Interview movie, which depicted the assassination of North Korea’s leader.

The justice department also alleged that the trio participated in the creation of the destructive WannaCry 2.0 ransomware which hit Britain’s National Health Service hard when it was set loose in 2017.

The indictment pins the blame on the hackers for breaking into banks across South and Southeast Asia, Mexico, and Africa by penetrating the financial institutions’ networks and abusing the SWIFT protocol to steal money.

They are also alleged to have deployed malicious applications from March 2018 through September 2020 to target cryptocurrency users.

“North Korea’s operatives... are the world’s leading 21st century nationstate bank robbers.

JOHN DEMERS, US assistant attorney general