North Korean Hackers ‘Aggressively Targeting’ Crypto Industry, FBI Warns

The threat actors employ social engineering tactics to gain inside access to critical systems, said the federal agency.

A North Korean flag flies on a mast at the Permanent Mission of North Korea in Geneva, on Oct. 2, 2014. Denis Balibouse/Reuters

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued a hacking alert on Tuesday warning that North Korea was aggressively targeting the cryptocurrency industry, using complex and elaborate schemes that render “well versed” cybersecurity experts vulnerable to attacks.

North Korea is conducting “highly tailored, difficult-to-detect social engineering campaigns against employees of decentralized finance (DeFi), cryptocurrency, and similar businesses to deploy malware and steal company cryptocurrency,” said the Sept. 3 alert. Over the past months, hackers from the communist nation have carried out research on a variety of targets connected to exchange-traded funds (ETFs), it noted.