Although the US and the United Nations have levied sanctions meant to prevent the illegal financing of nuclear weapons, North Korea is proving to be adept at sidestepping them — and is also remarkably proficient at cybercrime. As other countries try to hammer out common cybersecurity protocols, North Korea has rapidly grown its cyber capabilities, both domestically and abroad. As a result, despite ever-tightening sanctions, the regime is finding ways to exploit digital vulnerabilities around the world and launch cyberattacks — typically through its hacking teams, code-named Hidden Cobra or Lazarus Group — to extort money for its banned nuclear weapons development program.
In 2017, the US Department of Homeland Security and the FBI published a rare cybersecurity bulletin that linked North Korea to several attacks on US businesses and critical infrastructure. The alert concerned a type of malware dubbed Delta Charlie, which the Department of Homeland Security and FBI claim the North Korean government used to launch distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. These botnet attacks direct a flood of destructive IP traffic stemming from insecure Internet of Things devices to knock websites, applications, and other IT infrastructure offline for hours, days, or weeks.
The cybercrime market's size and the scarcity of effective protection continue to be a mouth-watering lure for North Korean cyber groups. The country's cyber operations carry little risk, don't cost much, and can produce lucrative results. Nam Jae-joon, the former director of South Korea's National Intelligence Service, reports that Kim Jong Un himself said that cyber capabilities are just as important as nuc ..
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