The hackers of North Korea allegedly entered the systems of South Korean chip equipment makers, as per South Korea’s spy agency. North Korea has been making efforts to create semiconductors for its weapons programmes, said the National Intelligence Service (NIS).
This was reported a month after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol had warned that North Korea is likely to stage provocations like cyber attacks for meddling with upcoming elections.
North Korea escalates hacking efforts
North Korea last year hacked the emails of President Yoon’s aide.
“We believe that North Korea might possibly be preparing to produce its own semiconductors in the face of difficulties in procuring them due to sanctions,” said the NIS, in a statement.
It stated that Pyongyang may have been making efforts to hack South Korean chip equipment firms because they need chips for the weapons programmes, which include satellites and missiles.
The NIS has stated that North Korean hackers broke into the two chip equipment companies’ servers in December and February, stealing photographs of their facilities and product designs.
It further issued a warning to other companies in the chip-making industry to remain alert against cyber attacks.
The spy agency, however, failed to mention which firms were affected and did not even clarify if North Korea was able to get anything of value.
The NIS claimed that the companies of South Korea had remained a key target of North Korean hackers since last year.
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According to NIS, the hackers employed a technique known as “living off the land,” which decreases malicious codes and uses legitimate and existing tools installed within servers, which makes it difficult for hackers to detect it using security software.
President Yoon’s office last month said that an aide’s email account was breached which was caused by a violation of security regulations and added that the official system had not been hacked.
North Korea has always rejected claims of being involved in cyber-crimes, however, Seoul has blamed the hackers of North Korea for stealing large sums of money, generally in the form of cryptocurrency, for funding the regime as well as its nuclear weapons programme.
It has been estimated that North Korea has stolen almost $3bn (£2.36bn) since 2016. It is also believed to carry out hacks with the aim of stealing state secrets, which include details of advanced weapons technology.
North Korea, which has faced extreme international sanctions, is becoming increasingly sophisticated in the way cyber attacks are carried out.
(With inputs from agencies)
