The refugees from North Korea told about the hacking Department in the secret service of the country
In the main intelligence Agency of North Korea has a Department called Unit 180 is responsible for organizing and conducting cyberattacks. About it reports Reuters, citing its own sources and testimonies of officials and experts in the field of cybersecurity.
In particular, according to experts, is the Unit 180 involved in the spread of the virus WannaCry.
Kim Heung Kwang, a former Professor of computer science, who escaped from North Korea of the country in 2004, said that “hacker” Department of intelligence of the DPRK is largely responsible for financial crimes. “Unit 180 is engaged in hacking attacks on financial institutions for the purpose of withdrawing money from Bank accounts,” said Kim.
According to Kim, some of his former students joined strategic units, constituting a “cyber army” of the DPRK.
Kim also believes that the North Korean hackers out of the country to “have the best Internet access, without leaving traces”. Hackers can make entry and exit from the country, posing as employees of the trading companies of the DPRK or employees of affiliates of the companies from North Korea.
Unit 180 is associated, in particular, not only with the attack of the virus WannaCry, but with the hacking group Lazarus. The latter became famous for trying to steal $951 million from the Central Bank of Bangladesh through the SWIFT system. Earlier, the experts of “Kaspersky Lab” noted that part of the code of the virus WannaCry match the code of the virus, previously distributed hacking group Lazarus.
Virus-extortionist WannaCry has infected more than 300 thousand computers in over 150 countries. In Russia the attack of the virus has undergone, in particular, interior Ministry, emergencies Ministry, Ministry of health, as well as commercial companies, Russian Railways, Sberbank, VTB, stormie operators Yota and MegaFon and other companies.