A North Korean man was charged by the US government on Thursday over the 2017 global WannaCry ransomware cyber-attack and the 2014 cyber-assault on Sony Corp, US officials said.
The charges were part of a strategy by the US government to deter any kind of future cyber-attacks by disclosing their names and shaming the alleged perpetrators. And according to a criminal complaint, there is another allegation against the North Korean hacker that he broke into the central bank of Bangladesh in 2016.
According to the complaint, Park Jin Hyok was involved with a team of hackers which is also called as Lazarus Group. They tried to break into many US businesses through cyberspace. During the period between 2016 and 2017, Park wanted to target defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. The complaint said that no evidence was available that Lockheed was ever breached.
Sanctions were imposed by the US Treasury Department on Park and the Chinese-based front company Chosun Expo, that he worked for.
A request for comment was not responded to by the North Korean mission to the United Nations.
The Sony company was breached by hackers in 2014 according to US officials who claimed that a major cyber intrusion was made by them resulting in a leak of internal documents and data being destroyed.
The attacks were made only after North Korea sent a letter to the United Nations which conveyed the Pyongyang’s demand that Sony should not release the movie “The Interview” that portrayed the US-supported assassination of a character made to look like the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The complaint said that Park used multiple online profiles over social media platforms which included Facebook and Twitter to enable sending malicious links to individuals that were involved in the production of “The Interview” the complaint said. The malicious links contained malware controlled by North Korea.
In November 2014 too, Park allegedly launched the same kind of social media focused attack against employees of AMC Theatres.
Due to the WannaCry ransomware last year, many businesses in thousands suffered across the globe. The computer virus worked by encrypting files on affected systems which included Britain’s National Health Service, where nonfunctional computer systems crippled the appointment system resulting in the cancellation of them.
According to John Demers who is the Assistant Attorney General of the National Security Division, the move by the US Justice Department marks the first time that it has formally charged a hacker relating to cybercrimes “sponsored” by the North Korean government.
“The department has charged, arrested and imprisoned hackers working for the governments of China, Russia and Iran. Today, we add the North Korean regime to our list, completing frankly four out of four of our principle adversaries in cyberspace.”
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