Cybersecurity This Week: Threats, Losses, and Reflections
North Korean Hackers Create Fraudulent Crypto Firms
This week, cybersecurity researchers at Silent Push discovered three different fake cryptocurrency firms, with two of them established in the United States in violation of the Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctions. OFAC is a group underneath the Treasury Department and is meant to prevent specifically North Korean commercial activity. The fake businesses were tied to the prevalent Pyongyang hackers, the Lazarus Group. The hacking group is connected to the Reconnaissance General Bureau, which is North Korea’s biggest foreign intelligence group. It is also important to note that this scam violates United Nations sanctions as well. Experts at Silent Push have said that Lazarus Group has done something unprecedented by being able “to set up legal corporate entities in the U.S.” (Reuters). The companies named Blocknovas LLC and Softglide LLC were based in New Mexico and New York used these corporate fronts to deceive developers with fake job postings as a way to infect people with malware. This proves to be extremely harmful because the malware targets developers’ passwords and credentials, which can leave businesses at risk, especially if the developers work on a contractual or freelance basis. In light of this discovery, the FBI seized the domain for Blocknovas on Thursday. At this time, the FBI has yet to arrest any specific actors for these attacks.
Source:
https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/north-korean-cyber-spies-created-us-firms-dupe-crypt o-developers-2025-04-24/
Inside Out Legal is your In-House Extension.
We handle a wide variety of matters that are typically handled by corporate in-house legal departments. We are available to provide additional legal resources directly to the general counsel’s office to handle overflow and specific projects. We are also able to provide services directly to the business team itself. Our team regularly counsels clients on how to comply with federal and state regulations that govern healthcare, higher education, information technology, data privacy and security, commercial real estate and various other highly regulated services. We also have extensive experience creating or revising compliance programs on behalf of our clients.
Learn more or schedule a consultation with one of our expert attorneys at https://inoutlaw.com/