The indictment charges individuals with involvement in hacking and fraud conspiracy.
The US Department of Justice and the FBI have brought criminal charges against three North Korean cyber actors, thought to be part of the Lazarus Group.
The indictment alleges that the individuals were involved in malicious activity including the targeting of the entertainment industry, ATM cash-out attacks, the creation of ransomware and spearphishing campaigns.
NCSC Director for Operations, Paul Chichester said:
“We fully support the criminal charges against members of the Lazarus Group announced today by our partners in the FBI and US Department of Justice. Working with our allies we are committed to countering malicious activity by state and non-state actors and will defend ourselves from disruptive behaviour in cyber space.”
Read the DoJ and FBI announcement here.
The UK has previously attributed the WannaCry ransomware incident to the Lazarus Group in December 2017, in parallel with the US, Australian, Canada, New Zealand, Japan and supported by Denmark. This ransomware incident impacted 300,000 computers in 150 countries, including 48 NHS trusts.
Why even bother. They will never be extradited.
It highlights internationally what is going on and if convicted should they ever be found outside fat boys kingdom they can be arrested and extradited to the USA on an international arrest warrant.
Should said kingdom collapse they are in deep doodoo!
It could drum up support for more sanctions, maybe a ban on imported IT equipment and software, and filtering what goes into NK.