The alleged hackers were working for a North Korean military agency, the Reconnaissance General Bureau, and pursuing strategic and financial goals of the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, authorities said. “As laid out in today’s indictment, North Korea’s operatives, using keyboards rather than masks and guns, are the world’s leading 21st century nation-state bank robbers,” said Assistant Atty. Prosecutors also announced that Ghaleb Alaumary, 37, of Ontario, Canada, had pleaded guilty to conspiracy, admitting that he laundered money for the alleged North Korean conspiracy. “The scope of the criminal conduct by the North Korean hackers was extensive and long-running, and the range of crimes they have committed is staggering,” said Tracy L. Wilkison, the acting U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles. Under pressure from withering U.S. and international sanctions, North Korean hackers have turned to cyber crime — ransomware attacks, bank heists, digital currency hacks and even ATM withdrawal schemes — to generate cash for Kim Jong Un’s regime and its nuclear weapons program in particular.

Source: Los Angeles Times February 17, 2021 17:04 UTC