North Korean Hackers Sanctioned by US Over Online Attacks

The U.S. sanctioned three North Korean state-sponsored groups that it says were responsible for hacking the interbank messaging system Swift and a ransomware attack called WannaCry 2.0 that crippled Britain’s National Health Service and Renault SA factories across Europe.

The Treasury Department said Friday the hacking groups are commonly known as Lazarus Group, Bluenoroff and Andariel. The groups are controlled by North Korea’s primary intelligence bureau, Treasury said in a statement.

The U.S. said the attacks have been used to fund illicit weapon and missile programs by North Korea, which is under broad American sanctions over the country’s nuclear program.

“We will continue to enforce existing U.S. and UN sanctions against North Korea and work with the international community to improve cybersecurity of financial networks,” said Sigal Mandelker, Treasury’s under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.

Almost no progress has been made toward an agreement on North Korea’s nuclear program despite three meetings between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un. After their latest meeting, the U.S. said Kim had agreed to begin detailed negotiations by mid-July.

The U.S. action builds on charges and sanctions imposed on an alleged member of the Lazarus group last year.

The Justice Department in 2018 filed criminal charges against a North Korean national who who it alleged belonged to the Lazarus group. The person, Park Jin Hyok, was charged with crimes stemming from the 2014 hack on Sony Pictures Entertainment and the 2017 WannaCry ransomware operation. The Treasury Department simultaneously imposed sanctions against Park and his employer.

In the WannaCry attack, hackers infected computers with malicious software that encrypted data and demanded ransom payments from users to be released.

The massive cyberattack on Sony Pictures was seen at the time as representing a new, aggressive type of hacking because it crippled computers, deleted data and released embarrassing internal emails in retaliation for the company’s film “The Interview,” a comedy about a Central Intelligence Agency plot to kill Kim.