“At a time when Washington is cautiously hopeful of a breakthrough in its long-troubled relations with Pyongyang, senior US officials are making strong allegations about the regime’s cyber crimes.In early September, The US Justice Department published a criminal complaint against a North Korean citizen for conspiracy to ‘conduct multiple destructive cyber-attacks around the world resulting in damage to massive amounts of computer hardware, and the extensive loss of data, money and other resources.’ Furthermore, it alleges that the individual was ‘at times dispatched to China, along with others, to work for Chosen Expo for paying clients on non-malicious software and information technology projects’
“The DOJ alleges that not only was Park a central player in some of the most sensational hacks of recent times, it also claims he was a member of a Pyongyang-based cyber-espionage unit. ‘The complaint alleges that Park was a member of a government-sponsored hacking team known to the private sector as the ‘Lazarus Group,’ and worked for a North Korean government front company, Chosun Expo Joint Venture (aka ‘Korea Expo Joint Venture’ or ‘KEJV’), to support the DPRK government’s malicious cyber actions,’ a DOJ press release accompanying the indictment said. ‘The Conspiracy’s malicious activities include the creation of the malware used in the 2017 WannaCry 2.0 global ransomware attack; the 2016 theft of $81 million from Bangladesh Bank; the 2014 attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE); and numerous other attacks or intrusions on the entertainment, financial services, defense, technology, and virtual currency industries, academia, and electric utilities.’”
Source: US agencies see alliance between North Korean, Chinese hackers | Asia Times
