Report: North Korean Hackers Infiltrate Hundreds of Global Organizations by Disguising as VC and IT Personnel, Stealing Billions of Dollars in Cryptocurrency

According to TechCrunch, on November 28th, James Elliott, a security researcher at Microsoft, released a new research report at the Cyberwarcon conference in Washington, stating that the North Korean Hacker group has successfully infiltrated ‘hundreds’ of global organizations over the past decade by disguising themselves as venture capitalists, recruiters, and remote IT workers, and has stolen billions of dollars of Cryptocurrency to fund its nuclear weapons program.

The report provides detailed disclosure of the activities of two major hacker groups: the organization codenamed ‘Ruby Sleet’ targeting aerospace and defense companies to steal secrets; and the organization codenamed ‘Sapphire Sleet’ posing as recruiters and venture capitalists, stealing over $10 million in cryptocurrency within 6 months. These hackers exploit virtual conference malfunctions as an excuse to lure victims into downloading malware disguised as repair tools.