North Korean Hackers Take Aim at Individual Crypto Investors

Faced with depleted reserves and having been hit with sanctions aimed at its illegal nuclear weapons program, North Korean hackers have a new strategy for growing the country’s cash reserves — steal crypto holdings from individual investors.

According to a report from the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the option to target individuals who hold cryptocurrencies is a departure from their usual model of penetrating high-value financial institutions and centralized crypto exchanges.

To steal their victims’ digital assets, hackers send unsuspecting victims an email with infected file attachments. Once the victim downloads the files, a malicious script infects the computer and takes total control of the machine. From then on, they can do serious damage.

The SCMP quoted the founder of the cyber warfare research group IssueMakersLab, Simon Choi, who confirmed the change in the modus operandi of North Korean hackers. He argued that the shift from targeting exchanges and…