Lazarus Group
The Lazarus Group is a state-sponsored hacker group made up of unknown members, alleged to be run by the government of North Korea. While not much is known about the group, researchers have attributed many cyberattacks to them since the 2010s.
Originally deemed as a clandestine criminal group, the group has now been designated as an advanced persistent threat due to its intended nature, threat, and wide array of methods used when conducting an operation. Names given by cybersecurity organizations include Hidden Cobra, ZINC and Diamond Sleet. According to North Korean defector Kim Kuk-song, the unit is internally known in North Korea as the 414 Liaison Office.
The Lazarus Group has strong links to North Korea. The United States Department of Justice has claimed the group is part of the North Korean government's strategy to "undermine global cybersecurity... and generate illicit revenue in violation of... sanctions". North Korea benefits from conducting cyber operations because it can present an asymmetric threat with a small group of operators, especially to South Korea.
History
The earliest known attack that the group is responsible for is known as "Operation Troy", which took place from 2009 to 2012. This was a cyber-espionage campaign that utilized unsophisticated distributed denial-of-service attack techniques to target the South Korean government in Seoul. They were also responsible for attacks in 2011 and 2013. Though uncertain, it is possible that they were also behind a 2007 attack targeting South Korea. A notable attack that the group is known for is the 2014 attack on Sony Pictures. The Sony attack used more sophisticated techniques and highlighted how advanced the group has become over time.File:Cartel de la orden de captura de Park Jin Hyok.png|thumb|FBI wanted notice for one of the hackers of the Lazarus Group, Park Jin HyokThe Lazarus Group were reported to have stolen US$12 million from the Banco del Austro in Ecuador and US$1 million from Vietnam's Tien Phong Bank in 2015. They have also targeted banks in Poland and Mexico. The 2016 bank heist included an attack on the Bangladesh Bank, successfully stealing US$81 million and was attributed to the group. In 2017, the Lazarus group was reported to have stolen US$60 million from the Far Eastern International Bank of Taiwan although the actual amount stolen was unclear, and most of the funds were recovered.
It is not clear who is really behind the group, but media reports have suggested the group has links to North Korea. Kaspersky Lab reported in 2017 that Lazarus tended to concentrate on spying and infiltration cyberattacks whereas a sub-group within their organisation, which Kaspersky called Bluenoroff, specialised in financial cyberattacks. Kaspersky found multiple attacks worldwide and a direct link between Bluenoroff and North Korea.
However, Kaspersky also acknowledged that the repetition of the code could be a "false flag" meant to mislead investigators and pin the attack on North Korea, given that the worldwide WannaCry worm cyber attack copied techniques from the NSA as well. This ransomware leverages an NSA exploit known as EternalBlue that a hacker group known as Shadow Brokers made public in April 2017.
Symantec reported in 2017 that it was "highly likely" that Lazarus was behind the WannaCry attack.
2009 Operation Troy
The Lazarus Group's first major hacking incident took place on July 4, 2009, and sparked the beginning of "Operation Troy". This attack utilized the Mydoom and Dozer malware to launch a large-scale, but quite unsophisticated, DDoS attack against US and South Korean websites. The volley of attacks struck about three dozen websites and placed the text "Memory of the Independence Day" in the master boot record.2013 South Korea Cyberattack (Operation 1Mission/ DarkSeoul)
Over time, attacks from this group have grown more sophisticated; their techniques and tools have become better developed and more effective. The March 2011 attack known as "Ten Days of Rain" targeted South Korean media, financial, and critical infrastructure, and consisted of more sophisticated DDoS attacks that originated from compromised computers within South Korea. The attacks continued on March 20, 2013, with DarkSeoul, a wiper attack that targeted three South Korean broadcast companies, financial institutes, and an ISP. At the time, two other groups going by the personas "NewRomanic Cyber Army Team and WhoIs Team", took credit for that attack but researchers did not know the Lazarus Group was behind it at the time. Researchers today know the Lazarus Group as a supergroup behind the disruptive attacks.Late 2014: Sony breach
The Lazarus Group attacks culminated on November 24, 2014. On that day, a Reddit post appeared stating that Sony Pictures had been hacked via unknown means; the perpetrators identified themselves as the "Guardians of Peace". Large amounts of data were stolen and slowly leaked in the days following the attack. An interview with someone claiming to be part of the group stated that they had been siphoning Sony's data for over a year.The hackers were able to access previously unreleased films, scripts for certain films, plans for future films, information about executive salaries at the company, emails, and the personal information of around 4,000 employees.
Early 2016 Investigation: Operation Blockbuster
Under the name "Operation Blockbuster", a coalition of security companies, led by Novetta, was able to analyse malware samples found in different cyber-security incidents. Using that data, the team was able to analyse the methods used by the hackers. They linked the Lazarus Group to a number of attacks through a pattern of code re-usage. For example, they used a little-known encryption algorithm available on the internet, the Caracachs cipher algorithm.2016 Bangladesh Bank cyber heist
Bangladesh Bank cyber heist, was a theft that took place in February 2016. Thirty-five fraudulent instructions were issued by security hackers via the SWIFT network to illegally transfer close to US$1 billion from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York account belonging to Bangladesh Bank, the central bank of Bangladesh. Five of the thirty-five fraudulent instructions were successful in transferring US$101 million, with US$20 million traced to Sri Lanka and US$81 million to the Philippines. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York blocked the remaining thirty transactions, amounting to US$850 million, due to suspicions raised by a misspelled instruction. Cybersecurity experts claimed that the North Korea–based Lazarus Group was behind the attack.May 2017 WannaCry ransomware attack
The WannaCry attack was a massive ransomware cyberattack that hit institutions across the globe ranging all the way from the NHS in Britain, to Boeing, and even to Universities in China on May 12, 2017. The attack lasted 7 hours and 19 minutes. Europol estimates it affected nearly 200,000 computers in 150 countries, primarily affecting Russia, India, Ukraine, and Taiwan. This was one of the first attacks of a cryptoworm. Cryptoworms are a class of malware that travels between computers using networks, without requiring direct user action for infection – in this case, exploiting TCP port 445. To be infected, there is no need to click on a bad link – the malware can spread autonomously, from a computer to a connected printer, and then beyond to adjacent computers, perhaps connected to the local network, etc. The port 445 vulnerability allowed the malware to move freely across intranets, and infect thousands of computers rapidly. It was also one of the first large scale uses of a cryptoworm.Attack
The virus exploited a vulnerability in the Windows operating system, then encrypted the computer's data in return for a sum of Bitcoin worth roughly $300 to get the key. In order to encourage payment, the ransom demand doubled after three days, and if not paid in a week, the malware deletes the encrypted data files. The malware used a legitimate piece of software called Windows Crypto, made by Microsoft to scramble the files. Once the encryption is completed, the filename has "Wincry" appended, which is the root of the Wannacry name. Wincry was the base of the encryption, but two additional exploits, EternalBlue and DoublePulsar, were used by the malware to make it a cryptoworm. EternalBlue automatically spreads the virus through networks, while DoublePulsar triggered it to activate on a victim's computer. In other words, EternalBlue got the infected link to your computer, and DoublePulsar clicked it for you.Security researcher Marcus Hutchins brought the attack to an end when he received a copy of the virus from a friend at a security research company and discovered a kill switch hardcoded into the virus. The malware included a periodic check to see if a specific domain name was registered, and would only proceed with encryption if that domain name did not exist. Hutchins identified this check, then promptly registered the relevant domain at 3:03 pm UTC. The malware immediately stopped propagating itself and infecting new machines. This was very interesting, and is a clue as to who created the virus. Usually stopping malware takes months of back and forth fighting between the hackers and security experts, so this easy win was unexpected. Another very interesting and unusual aspect of the attack was that the files were not recoverable after paying the ransom: only $160,000 was collected, leading many to believe that the hackers weren't after the money.
The easy kill switch and lack of revenue led many to believe that the attack was state-sponsored; the motive was not financial compensation, but just to cause chaos. After the attack security experts traced the DoublePulsar exploit back to the United States NSA where the exploit had been developed as a cyberweapon. The exploit was then stolen by the Shadow Brokers hacker group, who first tried to auction it off, but after failing to do that simply gave it away for free. The NSA subsequently revealed the vulnerability to Microsoft who issued an update on March 14, 2017, two months before the attack occurred. The update wasn't mandatory and the majority of computers with the vulnerability had not resolved the issue by the time May 12 rolled around, leading to the widespread impact of the attack.