Security researchers from Kaspersky Lab have discovered that the North Korean Hackers group dubbed ‘Lazarus’ that launched WannaCry Ransomware Attack in 2017 was behind the launch of two other ransomware attacks in this year involving VHD Ransomware strain.
Kaspersky says that the attackers from Lazarus group could use sophisticated tools to launch more cyber attacks on public and private agencies in this year and might also nurture a cyber crime unit to launch digital attacks on banking institutions to steal currency.
The Cybersecurity Company from Russia states that the Kim Jong Un government launches cyber attacks in two categories 1.) By engaging in stealing classified info from adversaries and 2.) By engaging in cyber attacks to steal currency from banks and cryptocurrency firms.
VHD Ransomware that is suspected to be developed by Lazarus Group is also stated to be the work of Pyongyang hackers and was aimed to extort money from hacked organizations, orchestrating crimes such as ATM washouts and running crypto mining botnets on the servers operated by the Cloud Service Providers and even launch Magecart related attacks to steal payment card details.
All these days, North Korea has been blamed for launching cyber attacks on companies operating in the West. But it never indulged in spreading ransomware where hackers are seen locking down a database with malware until a ransom is paid.
However, this situation changed from 2017 when the hackers launched WannaCry Ransomware attack that targeted almost 250,000 computers across the world via a Microsoft OS Vulnerability- First detected by US National Security Agency in 2016.
Now, with the recently developed VHD Ransomware, Kaspersky Labs suspects that the hackers group is said to launch a major sophisticated digital attack soon, which is alarming!
