US treasury made an announcement on last Friday stating that they are imposing sanctions on three North Korean hacking groups. It said that these groups are a part of “Wannacry” team. They are hacking into banks and other financial institutions across the world. They are hacking the bank accounts of international customers in banks.
There is a total of three groups and they are named Lazarus, Andariel, Bluenoroff. All these groups are controlled by RGB. This RGB is the primary intelligence bureau. Both the US and UN have already imposed sanctions on this group.
This sanction will block all the US related assets of groups and prohibit dealing with it. The treasury statement said that any foreign banks that deal with these groups either directly or indirectly are also subjected to the sanctions. Treasury is taking action against the North Korean hacking groups that are creating cyberattacks to support missile programs and illicit weapon usage.
Sanctions Will Continue Along with Improving Cyber Security
Sigal Mandelkar, treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence said that the treasury will continue these sanctions on the hacking groups. It will also strive to provide better cybersecurity. They are increasing cybersecurity in order to avoid any kind of hacking. The US is still pressing North Korea to give up its missiles. But North Korea is stalling the same asking US to remove the sanctions. The country has so many other demands in hand too.
Earlier this month UN made allegations on North Korea stating that the country stole $2 billion by hacking into banks and other crypto platforms. North Korea denied all these allegations but the country is still the main suspect. Treasury said that the three groups from North Korea have a huge role in various hacking incidents happened on so many organizations across the world since 2014.
Source – Wall Street Journal
