South Korea became a strong competitor in terms of cryptocurrency developing. It is an important element, especially for Bitcoin industry. This fact attracts a lot of attention from foreign sides, both positive and negative.

It seems that North Korea is one countries that negatively influences this domain. According to cybersecurity experts, there were several hack attacks against South Korea. It was registered the same source of hacking campaign used in 2014 to destroy Sony Pictures and in 2017 the global WannaCry software, relates Recorded Future enterprise.

This last major attack targeted Coinlink – a South Korean cryptocurrency exchange. It is known that hackers started collecting the personal information of employees since last year. Fortunately for South Korea, it was a failure.

An official report was published on Tuesday, 17 January, 2018 on Recorded Future website. They analyzed the way hackers act and they also found similarities between previous attacks on famous companies. According to the base source they found, it’s assumed that Lazarus is hiding under this campaign. They also argued that North Korea is sponsoring them to manage such illegal operations.

The US authorities have already met them indirectly when they infected in 2009 some of US and South Korea websites, using the MyDoom virus

Lazarus started to focus on the cryptocurrency industry since 2017, when they attacked Bithumb exchange platform, according to Yonhap News.

Why was South Korea attacked?

As we mentioned above, North Korea isn’t targeting only their neighbors beyond the border, but also other important governments and financial entities.

It is assumed that Lazarus manages hacking campaign to support Kim Jong Un’s financial plans.

Another attack was registered on YoBit– South Korean Bitcoin exchange in December 2017. It is said that they work as a large team.

Perhaps it’s simpler to attack a powerful company than to start yours from the beginning. A boarding director from Recorded Future enterprise – Priscilla Moriuchi related about North Korean attacks that “this is a continuation of their broader interest in cryptocurrency as a funding stream”.

South Korea is a strong country in terms of cryptocurrency. It is impossible not to attract negative influencers. But, this can be a great opportunity to notice which cryptocurrency platforms have a strong security.

What do you think about North Korean attacks?