It was reported that earlier this week, the hackers sent a phishing email to UpBit users. The fake email urged users to provide additional customer information for a made-up sweepstakes’ payout held by the exchange.
According to security firm East Security, the email had a file attachment which claimed to have additional information regarding the payout but it actually installed the malware code when opened.
East Security has concluded that phishing email was sent by a North Korean hacking group known as Kim Soo-Ki.
This is not the first instance in which North Korea was involved in hacking their neighbor’s crypto exchanges.
It was revealed that North Korea succeeded in gathering $670 million in cryptocurrency in order to circumvent international trade sanctions.
But the North Korean government isn’t the only one to use cryptocurrencies to its advantage. The opposing political movement called Cheollima Civil Defense (CCD) were selling “post-liberation blockchain visas” in order to raise crypto funds to overthrow the dictatorship of Kim Jong-un.
Another infamous hacking group from North Korea is Lazarus. It was reported last October that the organization was the most profitable hacking group in the world, amassing $882 million worth of cryptocurrency by hacking exchanges over a period of two years.
It is not yet known how many have fallen to the phishing attack, but we hope that UpBit users have proceeded with caution and avoided responding to the scam.
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