Cybersecurity research firm FireEye has warned Kim Jong-un’s regime has stepped up its efforts to spy on large South Korean and Japanese, Vietnamese and Middle Eastern firms.
The news of Reaper’s activity comes after another North Korean backed hacker group called “Lazarus” wreaked havoc across the world last year after a wide-spread cyber attack.
John Hultquist, FireEye’s Director of Intelligence Analysis, said: “We’re talking multinationals, they have offices all over the world. Companies like that, any effect can reverberate, because it’s global already.”
Reaper is a mysterious hacking group and very little is known about them but FireEye has said with “high confidence” the group’s online activity is “carried out on behalf of the North Korean government, given malware development artifacts and targeting that aligns with North Korean state interests.”
While Mr Hultquist would not name which companies had been targeted by North Korea, he said the group had placed their attention on Fortune Global 500 companies that are “the crown jewels” of the South Korean economy.
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The FireEye Director continued: “It’s like your security system is a big wall, but someone knows that there’s a hole somewhere in that wall and can crawl through it.”
The new report into the threat posed by Reaper comes after the US intelligence community said in a Worldwide Threat Assessment published last week that there would be a rise in cyberattacks from North Korea in 2018.
They said: “We expect the heavily sanctioned North Korea to use cyber operations to raise funds and to gather intelligence or launch attacks on South Korea and the United States.”
When the hacker group appeared to rapidly increase their activity last year, security firm Check Point warned the rapidly growing new bot may have already infected millions of organisations.
Check Point warned: “The next cyber hurricane is about to come”.
The attack could be used to distribute ransomware, or to send spam or phishing messages.
Check Point said: “So far we estimate over a million organisations have already been affected worldwide, including the US, Australia and everywhere in between, and the number is only increasing.
“Our research suggests we are now experiencing the calm before an even more powerful storm.
“The next cyber hurricane is about to come.”
North Korea has always denied having any involvement in international cyber attacks but several cyberattacks have been linked to the rogue state following detailed analysis.
Mr Hultquist says Reaper has all the characteristics of once again working on behalf of Kim Jong-un.
He added: “They have shown very little regard for norms and red lines, and again and again pushed the limits of acceptable behaviour for a nation state.”