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North Korea Hacking Threatens US and Global Financial System: US Officials (reuters.com) 87

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
U.S. government officials warned on Wednesday about the threat of North Korean hackers, calling particular attention to banking and other finance. From a report: The reason for the advisory -- which was jointly issued by the U.S. Departments of State, Treasury, and Homeland Security, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation -- was unclear. North Korean hackers have long been accused of targeting financial institutions, and the content of the warning appeared to draw on material already in the public domain. North Korea is alleged to be behind an ambitious, years-long campaign of digital theft, including siphoning tens of millions of dollars in cash from ATMs, carrying out gigantic thefts at major banks, extorting computer users worldwide, and hijacking digital currency exchanges. The global money-grab has been a topic of increasing international concern.
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North Korea Hacking Threatens US and Global Financial System: US Officials More

North Korea Hacking Threatens US and Global Financial System: US Officials

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  • ...so we get a report of an unspecified threat from North Korea? I imagine there will be many more vague, unsubstantiated, threats from foreign nations leading up to November, especially if his approval ratings go down.

    • Let's hope that nobody remembers H1N1 swine flu originated in the USA and killed maybe half a million innocent foreigners.

      https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandem... [cdc.gov]

      • Ever heard of the Kansas flu [nih.gov]?

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by NFN_NLN ( 633283 )

        Did the US cover it up and block the WHO from warning other nations with credible information?

        • I'd put money on that to be frank.

          Of course, American citizens are even more gullible than North Koreans, so no need to do it with force. They will do to *themseves*! :)

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by Anonymous Coward

            Why don't you go troll some other social media site or stop being an ass.

        • Did the US cover it up and block the WHO from warning other nations with credible information?

          Stop changing the subject, we were discussing Trump's press conferences.

      • Why? The US did nothing to hide or suppress information about it or its existence. In the one year period from April 2009 to April 2010 there were 60 million cases in the US, 9 to 18 million estimated deaths. We're a month or so into COVID19, so we'll see where we're at in a year. Granted the US did next to nothing about it for the first 6 or so months. But at least the government didn't actively stifle information about it.

      • Let's hope that nobody remembers H1N1 swine flu originated in the USA and killed maybe half a million innocent foreigners.

        https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandem... [cdc.gov]

        Given the timeframe of the pandemic, I'd say it's obvious people didn't remember or give a shit as far back as 2011. Obama was re-elected, and Bill Gates still stood on a stage years after that warning that the world still isn't ready to handle a global pandemic, as many others have.

        It's not merely blissful ignorance. We're so fucking stupid as a species that it's now willful negligence.

        That said, we humans can't help it. We're infected with the Disease of Greed. Have been for thousands of years now. I

        • There is a major difference between greed being part of us and greed as a dominant ideology and as an organizing factor in the society.
          On the one hand it is a natural part of our mockup, a characteristic which competes with our other characteristics. On the other hand it has become a requirement in order to be a respectable person.

          The psychopathic pursuit of self interest has become an ideology. It is our duty to pursue our self interest at the expense of all else because this is how the invisible hand of t

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Trump (Score:3, Insightful)

    by fluffernutter ( 1411889 ) on Wednesday April 15, 2020 @12:59PM (#59950948)
    Trumps best buddy wouldn't hack the US would he??!?

    • So it burns your ass that Trump is trying to resolve the problem with North Korea without having to drop bombs, or fight a nuclear war?

      • Re:Trump (Score:5, Informative)

        by Camel Pilot ( 78781 ) on Wednesday April 15, 2020 @04:13PM (#59951778) Homepage Journal

        So it burns your ass that Trump is trying to resolve the problem with North Korea without having to drop bombs, or fight a nuclear war?

        Trump has been completely ineffective and only strengthen Kim Jong-un by trying to absurdly flatter him and elevate his status around the world. He has made the situation worse for the long term.

        • NK has not been strengthened in any way. We've imposed harsh sanctions. They're weaker.
          They did not commit to a full halt to testing, so we did not hand them mountains of "aid" to continue to be belligerent assholes.
          NK didn't even launch another missile until Trump's impeachment was underway.

          The correct response with NK is to ignore them until they grow up and smack them down if they actually try something. Past policies of handing them cash every time they break promises are what sustained them and help

          • NK didn't even launch another missile until Trump's impeachment was underway.

            Are you trying to claim that the impeachment somehow affected Kim Jung-un? If so - that is weak sauce.

            The correct response with NK is to ignore them until they grow up and smack them down if they actually try something.

            I agree. But calling Kim "smart" "a great leader" "We fell in love" only strengthens Kim's grip on the NK and further legitimizes him as a leader. Trump's approach was embarrassingly juvenile at best.

            • Are you trying to claim that the impeachment somehow affected Kim Jung-un? If so - that is weak sauce.

              Are you suggesting that the North Koreans wouldn't try to exploit the US government tying itself in knots over impeachment? Nonsense.

              But calling Kim "smart" "a great leader" "We fell in love" only strengthens Kim's grip on the NK and further legitimizes him as a leader.

              I'm pretty sure his iron control of the military, police, border guards, intelligence agencies, and secret police, prolific executions, political education, re-education camps, and concentration camps for political prisoners provides all the grip Kim needs over the country.

              Trump's approach was embarrassingly juvenile at best.

              Next thing you know you'll be telling us that FDR and Churchill weren't genuinely thrilled to see the ma

        • Trump has been completely ineffective and only strengthen Kim Jong-un by trying to absurdly flatter him and elevate his status around the world. He has made the situation worse for the long term.

          Then why have nuclear tests and ICBM tests stopped?

          The situation in Korea was largely set before Trump took office.

      • What has been fixed? Trump has only put more of a target on the US's back as well as put greater danger on the rest of the world. North Korea has not stopped nuclear testing. Exactly what has Trump helped?

        • North Korea hasn't stopped nuclear testing? When was the last nuclear explosion? Any more in the 100+ kiloton range? What about ICBM launches? There haven't been more of those in some time.

      • Even Trump realizes that turning North Korea into a wasteland, nuclear or otherwise, has such horrifyingly bad optics on the World Stage that we would be sanctioned broadly and vigorously for it. The only excuse we really would have to enter into an open military conflict with North Korea would be if they were stupid enough to attack us with their military. Also realize that North Korea is kind of the 'pet' of China; we go pounding on North Korea, and China will come pound on us; you want World War 3? Becau
        • Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • China has warned North Korea that if they start a war they are on their own. "Optics" won't change the situation if North Korea is the aggressor that requires a response. The people that hate the United States now will still hate it then. Since Obama is no longer President, would you even affirm the right of the United States to self-defense? Or do you think the United States should be punished for electing Trump even if South Korea and the United States are victims of North Korean aggression? There ar

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • I'm confused. I see our strategic readiness has degraded through the loss of the war games in South Korea . . . Trump's only accomplishment was to make some people believed he was accomplishing something. No one credible believed it.

          I can see your confusion. Maybe I can help. Strategic level readiness is fine. There may be a very minor degradation at the tactical level, but not much to worry about. The Republic of Korea Army has about 47 divisions, the US has a partial division there. I'm surprised you didn't take note of the fact that the North Koreans haven't conducted any additional nuclear tests, and haven't launched any more ICBMs. That is going to limit their ability to bring their designs to maturity and their strategic ca

    • Kim and the DPRK think we're all a bunch of buffoons here in the U.S. because we've got a buffoon in the Whitehouse right now. Kim trolled Trump several times, with Trump walking away from their meetings thinking he was on top of things. Clearly he never was. So between the DRPK not being much impressed by America or it's President and all the sanctions against them, it's no surprise to me that they're resorting to various flavors of theft to try to supplement their economy. Sadly, little to none of what th

    • I thought Dennis Rodman was his buddy, not DJT.

  • I'm getting tired of all this state-sponsored digital terrorism that we just let slide by with some strongly worded statements condemning.

    I think it's time to fuck Russia and fuck North Korea. If your government is going to do this shit to us, it's time for our government to say it's 100% legal for us to return fire. Let loose every hacker and script kiddie in the country upon them, with no consequences if they get caught.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Hentes ( 2461350 )

      What makes you think that's not already what's happening? The US is just as guilty as any other power, problem is it's hard to hack a country where the internet is mostly inaccessible and a Commodore 64 is considered a cutting edge computer.

    • The worst imaginable damage the Norks could do is nothing at all beside the insane damage we have done to ourselves by turning the country into a giant Nazi prison camp and intentionally crashing the world economy.

      • Is N. Korea not being hit by the virus?

        Seems that would be a bigger worry to them at this time like the rest of the world?

    • Easy to say, but do you want to keep escalating and pick a fight with a country that has nuclear weapons? North Korea we could probably beat, maybe even without them destroying Seoul while we're at it. Russia on the other hand is another matter entirely. They've got more than enough nukes and the means of delivering them that we can't escape retaliation.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by The Rizz ( 1319 )

        We have nuclear weapons, and they picked the fight with us.

        What was your point, again?

  • Par for the course (Score:3)

    by Zitchas ( 713512 ) on Wednesday April 15, 2020 @01:23PM (#59951048) Journal

    If you deprive a (country / person) of all legal ways to acquire (money / resources), they will seek other not-so-legal ways to get said (money / resources). Is this a surprise to anyone?

    No one has sanctioned any of the other nuclear powers (both confirmed and suspected) for their weapons, it seems kind of hypocritical to insist that these two countries absolutely must absolutely face ruin if they so much as gesture towards wanting nuclear weapons.

    Given how poorly nuclear weapons are stored in many countries (USA included - land of the nuclear silos with broken doors), I think the only real surprise is that the countries that are trying to develop them haven't just walked off with one. I'm sure the only reason the businessman in chief hasn't sold them one is because they haven't offered a big enough check.

  • As long as we do nothing this will continue. We've been at war with North Korea all my life and we've done nothing the whole time

    • Doing something different seems to have helped with Cuba. Seems like something different would help with NK too. At some point we have to accept that they have nuclear weapons technology.

  • I don't know who to believe (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Alain Williams ( 2972 ) <addw@phcomp.co.uk> on Wednesday April 15, 2020 @01:37PM (#59951112) Homepage

    There have been complaints about the Norks many times as well as Russia, Iran, China, ... some might be true, some might be a distraction for some other state, eg: Israel, USA, ... What governments & their spooks claim and counter claim should, I think, be taken with shovel fulls of salt. They are all fighting a propaganda war: the targets are us, they want us to believe that they are all innocent and their enemies of the day are to blame.

    It is confusing.

    • It is confusing.

      It's mostly meant to distract you from the real issues.

      • As German comedian Volker Pispers said: Bin Laden was such a convenient scapegoat. Every time it's not going well at home, he's taken out of the closet.
        And what does Bush? The idiot empties the closet! :D

        I wonder though, if Putin is sulking right now: "Am I a joke to you?"

        Yes, Vladimir. Yes, yes, you are! [quickmeme.com]

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by hey! ( 33014 )

      North Korea is perhaps unique among all the countries in the world in that produces no information that people outside the county want, and doesn't allow people inside the country to consume information from outside. North Korea generates less legitimate web traffic than the Falkland Islands.

      So why is this country connected to the Internet at all?

      North Korea gets its Internet services through China, but the Chinese and North Korean leadership actually detest each other.

      • Who says they need a legit connection to the Internet? I'm sure China would be more than happy to string a cable across the border to them. Or, they'll just steal it from someone else.

        • They do get most of their connectivity through China. But China is not that eager to do them favors these days. China-North Korea relations are bad, because the Kim regime is a lose cannon and not interested in being cooperative.

          China is stuck with them, because they're a historical ally and China doesn't want to lose face.

  • Really? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by BAReFO0t ( 6240524 ) on Wednesday April 15, 2020 @02:24PM (#59951360)

    A shitty little country, where when you get a tour, they show you a fake computer lab with broken scrap PCs that are facing away from you while they type, because they can't even turn them on, because they got no electricity ... And even if they did, the breath coming out of their mouths turning all foggy because they got no heating either and it's minus 3 degrees inside, shows you that the condensation in the things would short them instantly... ?

    THAT ... threatened you?

    Are you saying that you are such a failure that North Korea is a serious threat to you?,
    or that your reports about them being shitty failures are a lie and we should rather join their paradise instead? (Yeah, right!... ;),
    cause I'm feelin like I'm getting mixed messages here . . .
    and I remember those from previous for-profit-only war drumming that Americans died from.

    What's the holdup anyway? If you wanna kill Kimchi Ungggh, just do it! Spare us the theatrics. It's not like the USA, with the biggest offensive war budget in all of human history, could not send a special ops team in there, and take out the entire leadership in a day, now is it?

    So what's the real goal here? Cause /that/ sure as hell ain't it!

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      Re "a fake computer lab with broken scrap PCs'.. thats just for use by the people of North Korea.
      Re "because they got no electricity" . for all the people outside select main city areas.
      Re "getting mixed messages here"... East Germany was seen in the same way. Only later did West Germany get to find the advanced level East German optical splitters on the east/west optical networks.
      Not been able to feed the people is not the same as not having a working Communist spy network.
      Communists will spy. As

  • North Korea has computers now?

  • Thieves (Score:3)

    by bill_mcgonigle ( 4333 ) * on Wednesday April 15, 2020 @02:35PM (#59951422) Homepage Journal

    So who is trying to steal money and pin it on the NKoreans?

    PS The Fed just "waived" legislative requirements that the banks taking bailout money stop paying C-suite bonuses and stock dividends. The Fed Board of Governors made up of bank presidents. #pitchforks

  • its as simple as that, just cut em off as much as possible, do it to China & Russia too, i hear all this talk about these nations doing all this cybercrime online, either cut them off or the USA should isolate itself from the rest of the world, make the USA's internet boundary inside the USA only,, and make something like an airlock for doing business with foreign nations, so what happens in the airlock stays in the airlock, i know i could care less about connecting with foreigners, i would rather spend

    • That was my first thought too, but these days North Korea is routing through multiple locations [wikipedia.org] so it's easier said than done. I was involved in some local banking security about 10 years ago, and we blocked some Russian traffic, not by IP but by attack signature. There was no legit reason for Russians to use a local bank, and we might have blocked IP ranges if I'd hung around long enough; but attackers will just proxy and/or locate in a 3rd country so that'll really only deter the casual stay-at-home and

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      re "make the USA's internet boundary inside the USA only,"
      What would the contractors at the NSA and GCHQ do all day? They need the world to connect and peer with/via the USA.
      All the prestige would go to back the FBI, MI5/6 and the CIA again.
      A connected world is a world the NSA can collect from.
  • Pointing fingers at NK while the US is doing exactly the same thing to others, even their own allies.. So why should we care what NK is doing to the US as the hacking goes both ways, oh or are the north koreans so much better at it?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by clovis ( 4684 )

      Pointing fingers at NK while the US is doing exactly the same thing to others, even their own allies.. So why should we care what NK is doing to the US as the hacking goes both ways, oh or are the north koreans so much better at it?

      Doing exactly the same thing?

      North Korea is alleged to be behind an ambitious, years-long campaign of digital theft, including siphoning tens of millions of dollars in cash from ATMs, carrying out gigantic thefts at major banks, extorting computer users worldwide, and hijacking digital currency exchanges.

      Are you seriously accusing the US government of hacking ATMs to steal money? Of extorting computers users worldwide? gigantic thefts at major banks?
      When the USA wants more money, we just print it.

      • haha, you really believe that you can just print money? funny guy. You do know the US has a big debt.

  • "...North Korean hackers have long been accused of targeting financial institutions..."

    North Korea? You mean that country that's currently touting zero coronavirus infections? The country that infamously maintains concentration camps full of their own citizens who have dared to utter a whisper of discontent against the DRPK? THAT North Korea?

    Yeah, something tells me they're rather busy right now ignoring the shit out of a global pandemic and killing their own citizens. Please call back later with your sensationalist bullshit "long accused" stories.

  • Why can't we just sever NK's connections to the internet? They probably run through China or Russia, but that's no matter. The CIA could probably handle it.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      Then the NSA would have not work to do.
      Think of the contractor hours that keep the networks open for the NSA. The translators who get to work on files moved out over networks from deep in NK?
      The value the NSA gets out of been the only experts that got the files out.
      Not MI6, not the CIA, not South Korea ... the win was all 100% NSA. That was their network to find. The discovery of how a file moves digitally around NK.
      Their translation work from NK mil Korean jargon into American. That executive summ
  • Actually 55 year old Cheryl from accounting who doesn't know how to copy and paste and will open literally any attachment anyone sends her under any circumstances that's the security threat.
  • NK hackers (and also every other country's hackers) are doing their jobs with a degree of competence, inflicting chaos on their enemies - bonuses and trebles all round, as Mssrs Sue Grabbit & Runne would say.

    And US four-letter-word agency staff (or their minimum-wage contractors) are wailing about it, leading to Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. Which is what we have come to expect from governments in general and American governments in particular.

    No wonder the species is thriving, without significant thr

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