North Korea Carrying Out Global Espionage To Steal Military Secrets: US And Allies

North Korean hackers are stealing military secrets for their banned nuclear program by carrying out global espionage campaign, said the US, Britain and South Korea in a joint advisory.

The advisory said that cyberattack from hackers' group called Anadriel or APT45 have targeted computer systems at defence, engineering firms including those who manufacture tanks, submarine, naval ships, fighter jets and radar, missile systems.

"The authoring agencies believe the group and the cyber techniques remain an ongoing threat to various industry sectors worldwide, including but not limited to entities in their respective countries, as well as in Japan and India" said the advisory as reported by Reuters.

The advisory has been made by US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), US National Security Agency (NSA), British National Security Centre (NCSC) and South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS).

"The global cyber espionage operation that we have exposed today shows the lengths that DPRK state-sponsored actors are willing to go to pursue their military and nuclear programmes," said Paul Chichester at the NCSC as quoted by Reuters.

North Korea faces international isolation, especially from the US. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) as it is officially called, North Korea has a history of using hacking in order to steal military secrets.

A Reuters report in August 2023 talked about an elite group of North Korean hackers hacking systems at NPO Mashinostroyeniya. It is a bureau based in Reutov near Moscow.

The advisory said that APT45, the North Korean hacker group used common phishing techniques to fool officials into giving access to computer systems.

North Korea is banned from conducting missile tests. But the communist nation carries out such tests regularly. Missile launches from North Korea often create panic in South Korea and Japan, the neighbouring countries. Although it has not been comprehensively verified by a global agency, North Korea claims it is in possession of nuclear weapons.

(With inputs from agencies)