North Korea | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

The North Korea-linked threat actor known as UNC4899 has been attributed to attacks targeting two different organizations by approaching their employees via LinkedIn and Telegram. "Under the guise of freelance opportunities for software development work, UNC4899 leveraged social engineering techniques to successfully convince the targeted employees to execute malicious Docker containers in their respective workstations," Google's cloud division said [PDF] in its Cloud Threat Horizons Report for H2 2025. UNC4899 overlaps with activity tracked under the monikers Jade Sleet, PUKCHONG, Slow Pisces, and TraderTraitor. Active since at least 2020, the state-sponsored actor is known for its targeting of cryptocurrency and blockchain industries. Notably, the hacking group has been implicated in significant cryptocurrency heists , including that of Axie Infinity in March 2022 ($625 million), DMM Bitcoin in May 2024 ($308 million), and Bybit in February 2025 ($1.4 billion). ...

Some risks don't breach the perimeter—they arrive through signed software, clean resumes, or sanctioned vendors still hiding in plain sight. This week, the clearest threats weren't the loudest—they were the most legitimate-looking. In an environment where identity, trust, and tooling are all interlinked, the strongest attack path is often the one that looks like it belongs. Security teams are now challenged to defend systems not just from intrusions—but from trust itself being turned into a weapon. ⚡ Threat of the Week Microsoft SharePoint Attacks Traced to China — The fallout from an attack spree targeting defects in on-premises Microsoft SharePoint servers continues to spread a week after the discovery of the zero-day exploits, with more than 400 organizations globally compromised. The attacks have been attributed to two known Chinese hacking groups tracked as Linen Typhoon (aka APT27), Violet Typhoon (aka APT31), and a suspected China-based threat actor codenamed Storm-2603 t...

The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned a North Korean front company and three associated individuals for their involvement in the fraudulent remote information technology (IT) worker scheme designed to generate illicit revenues for Pyongyang. The sanctions target Korea Sobaeksu Trading Company (aka Sobaeksu United Corporation), and Kim Se Un, Jo Kyong Hun, and Myong Chol Min for evading sanctions imposed by the U.S. and the United Nations against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) government.  "Our commitment is clear: Treasury, as part of a whole-of-government effort, will continue to hold accountable those who seek to infiltrate global supply chains and enable the sanctions evasion activities that further the Kim regime's destabilizing agenda," said Director of OFAC Bradley T. Smith. The latest action marks the U.S. government's continued efforts to dismantle North Korea's wide-ranging r...

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The North Korean threat actors linked to the Contagious Interview campaign have been observed publishing another set of 67 malicious packages to the npm registry, underscoring ongoing attempts to poison the open-source ecosystem via software supply chain attacks. The packages, per Socket, have attracted more than 17,000 downloads, and incorporate a previously undocumented version of a malware loader codenamed XORIndex . The activity is an expansion of an attack wave spotted last month that involved the distribution of 35 npm packages that deployed another loader referred to as HexEval. "The Contagious Interview operation continues to follow a whack-a-mole dynamic, where defenders detect and report malicious packages, and North Korean threat actors quickly respond by uploading new variants using the same, similar, or slightly evolved playbooks," Socket researcher Kirill Boychenko said . Contagious Interview is the name assigned to a long-running campaign that seeks to en...

The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Tuesday sanctioned a member of a North Korean hacking group called Andariel for their role in the infamous remote information technology (IT) worker scheme. The Treasury said Song Kum Hyok, a 38-year-old North Korean national with an address in the Chinese province of Jilin, enabled the fraudulent operation by using foreign-hired IT workers to seek remote employment with U.S. companies and planning to split income with them. Between 2022 and 2023, Song is alleged to have used the identities of U.S. people, including their names, addresses, and Social Security numbers, to craft aliases for the hired workers, who then used these personas to pose as U.S. nationals looking for remote jobs in the country. The development comes days after the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) announced sweeping actions targeting the North Korean information technology (IT) worker scheme, leading to the arrest of one indi...

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) on Monday announced sweeping actions targeting the North Korean information technology (IT) worker scheme, leading to the arrest of one individual and the seizure of 29 financial accounts, 21 fraudulent websites, and nearly 200 computers. The coordinated action saw searches of 21 known or suspected "laptop farms" between June 10 and 17, 2025, across 14 states in the U.S. that were put to use by North Korean IT workers to remotely connect to victim networks via company-provided laptop computers.  "The North Korean actors were assisted by individuals in the United States, China, United Arab Emirates, and Taiwan, and successfully obtained employment with more than 100 U.S. companies," the DoJ said . The North Korean IT worker scheme has become one of the crucial cogs in the Democratic People's Republic of North Korea (DPRK) revenue generation machine in a manner that bypasses international sanctions. The fraudulent operation...

The North Korea-aligned threat actor known as BlueNoroff has been observed targeting an employee in the Web3 sector with deceptive Zoom calls featuring deepfaked company executives to trick them into installing malware on their Apple macOS devices. Huntress, which revealed details of the cyber intrusion, said the attack targeted an unnamed cryptocurrency foundation employee, who received a message from an external contact on Telegram. "The message requested time to speak to the employee, and the attacker sent a Calendly link to set up meeting time," security researchers Alden Schmidt, Stuart Ashenbrenner, and Jonathan Semon said . "The Calendly link was for a Google Meet event, but when clicked, the URL redirects the end user to a fake Zoom domain controlled by the threat actor." After several weeks, the employee is said to have joined a group Zoom meeting that included several deepfakes of known members of the senior leadership of their company, along with oth...

A new multi-stage malware campaign is targeting Minecraft users with a Java-based malware that employs a distribution-as-service (DaaS) offering called Stargazers Ghost Network . "The campaigns resulted in a multi-stage attack chain targeting Minecraft users specifically," Check Point researchers Jaromír Hořejší and Antonis Terefos said in a report shared with The Hacker News. "The malware was impersonating Oringo and Taunahi, which are 'Scripts and macros tools' (aka cheats). Both the first and second stages are developed in Java and can only be executed if the Minecraft runtime is installed on the host machine." The end goal of the attack is to trick players into downloading a Minecraft mod from GitHub and deliver a .NET information stealer with comprehensive data theft capabilities. The campaign was first detected by the cybersecurity company in March 2025. What makes the activity notable is its use of an illicit offering called the Stargazers Ghost...

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) said it has filed a civil forfeiture complaint in federal court that targets over $7.74 million in cryptocurrency, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and other digital assets allegedly linked to a global IT worker scheme orchestrated by North Korea. "For years, North Korea has exploited global remote IT contracting and cryptocurrency ecosystems to evade U.S. sanctions and bankroll its weapons programs," said Sue J. Bai, Head of the Justice Department's National Security Division. The Justice Department said the funds were originally restrained in connection with an April 2023 indictment against Sim Hyon-Sop, a North Korean Foreign Trade Bank (FTB) representative who is believed to have conspired with the IT workers. The IT workers, the department added, gained employment at U.S. cryptocurrency companies using fake identities and then laundered their ill-gotten gains through Sim to further Pyongyang's strategic objectives in violati...

A Chinese-language, Telegram-based marketplace called Xinbi Guarantee has facilitated no less than $8.4 billion in transactions since 2022, making it the second major black market to be exposed after HuiOne Guarantee . According to a report published by blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, merchants on the marketplace have been found to peddle technology, personal data, and money laundering services. "The USDT stablecoin is the primary payment method, with the market having received $8.4 billion in transactions to date," the company said . "Some transactions can be linked to funds stolen by North Korea." Xinbi, like HuiOne, has offered its services to scammers in Southeast Asia, including those responsible for so-called romance baiting schemes (formerly referred to as "pig butchering"), which has become one of the most lucrative forms of cybercrime in recent years. What's notable about these criminal bazaars is that they are entirely run on Tele...

The North Korea-linked threat actor known as Konni APT has been attributed to a phishing campaign targeting government entities in Ukraine, indicating the threat actor's targeting beyond Russia . Enterprise security firm Proofpoint said the end goal of the campaign is to collect intelligence on the "trajectory of the Russian invasion." "The group's interest in Ukraine follows historical targeting of government entities in Russia for strategic intelligence gathering purposes," security researchers Greg Lesnewich, Saher Naumaan, and Mark Kelly said in a report shared with The Hacker News. Konni APT , also known as Opal Sleet, Osmium, TA406, and Vedalia , is a cyber espionage group that has a history of targeting entities in South Korea, the United States, and Russia. It's operational since at least 2014. Attack chains mounted by the threat actor often involve the use of phishing emails to distribute malware called Konni RAT (aka UpDog) and redirect r...

The North Korean threat actors behind the Contagious Interview campaign have been observed using updated versions of a cross-platform malware called OtterCookie with capabilities to steal credentials from web browsers and other files. NTT Security Holdings, which detailed the new findings, said the attackers have "actively and continuously" updated the malware, introducing versions v3 and v4 in February and April 2025, respectively. The Japanese cybersecurity company is tracking the cluster under the name WaterPlum , which is also known as CL-STA-0240, DeceptiveDevelopment, DEV#POPPER, Famous Chollima, PurpleBravo, and Tenacious Pungsan. OtterCookie was first documented by NTT last year after having observed it in attacks since September 2024. Delivered by means of a JavaScript payload via a malicious npm package, trojanized GitHub or Bitbucket repository, or a bogus videoconferencing app, it's designed to contact an external server to execute commands on compromis...

North Korea-linked threat actors behind the Contagious Interview have set up front companies as a way to distribute malware during the fake hiring process. "In this new campaign, the threat actor group is using three front companies in the cryptocurrency consulting industry – BlockNovas LLC (blocknovas[.] com), Angeloper Agency (angeloper[.]com), and SoftGlide LLC (softglide[.]co) – to spread malware via 'job interview lures," Silent Push said in a deep-dive analysis. The activity, the cybersecurity company said, is being used to distribute three different known malware families, BeaverTail, InvisibleFerret , and OtterCookie . Contagious Interview is one of the several job-themed social engineering campaigns orchestrated by North Korea to entice targets into downloading cross-platform malware under the pretext of coding assignment or fixing an issue with their browser when turning on camera during a video assessment. The activity is tracked by the broader cybersecu...