Park Jin Hyok and other unnamed co-conspirators were involved in a barrage of cyber attacks that also involved an $81 million heist on the Bank of Bangladesh in 2016 and attempts to infiltrate companies such as Lockheed Martin, the DOJ says.
The US has charged a North Korean programmer for the WannaCry ransomware attack in 2017 and the Sony Pictures hack in 2014.
The programmer, Park Jin Hyok, allegedly works for a North Korean spy agency called the Reconnaissance General Bureau, the US Justice Department said on Thursday.
Although the US previously blamed North Korea for the both the WannaCry and Sony Picture cyber attacks, this is the first time federal investigators have publicly named a suspect in the crimes.
The Justice Department says Park and other unnamed co-conspirators were involved in a barrage of cyber attacks that also involved an $81 million heist on the Bank of Bangladesh in 2016 and attempts to infiltrate companies such as Lockheed Martin.
The federal arrest warrant for Park was issued by the US in June, but only unsealed today. Park allegedly worked in China from at least between 2011 to 2013, but returned to North Korea, shortly before the hack on Sony Pictures in 2014.
Officials say Park at times traveled to neighboring China and conducted work under a front company called Chosun Expo. One of his chief goals was to generate revenue for the North Korean government, federal investigators claim.
Park used phishing emails and » watering hole » attacks, which involve tricking unsuspecting victims into visiting a website under the hacker’s control. However, federal investigators uncovered a large network of different internet accounts Park allegedly used to sponsor his attacks.
US officials said they’ve had no talks with North Korea over extraditing Park, but plan on using US sanctions to both punish him and his front company.
