Security News > 2021 > February > U.S. Charges 3 North Korean Hackers Over $1.3 Billion Cryptocurrency Heist

The U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday indicted three suspected North Korean hackers for allegedly conspiring to steal and extort over $1.3 billion in cash and cryptocurrencies from financial institutions and businesses.

Accusing them of creating and deploying multiple malicious cryptocurrency applications, developing and fraudulently marketing a blockchain platform, the indictment expands on the 2018 charges brought against Park, one of the alleged nation-state hackers previously charged in connection with the 2014 cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment.

U.S. prosecutors said the three men were stationed by the North Korean government in other countries such as China and Russia with the goal of furthering the strategic and financial interests of the Kim Jong Un-led regime.

The DoJ did not elaborate on whether threat actors from either country collaborated with the North Korean operatives on these attacks.

A second case that was also unsealed yesterday concerned a Canadian-American citizen named Ghaleb Alaumary, who pled guilty in a money-laundering scheme and admitted to carrying out ATM "Cash-out" operations and a cyber-enabled bank heist orchestrated by North Korean hackers.

"The scope of the criminal conduct by the North Korean hackers was extensive and long-running, and the range of crimes they have committed is staggering," said Acting U.S. Attorney Tracy L. Wilkison for the Central District of California.

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