The FBI and U.S. Justice Department recently disrupted the activities of a hacking group that was sponsored by the North Korean government and that targeted U.S. hospitals with ransomware, ultimately recovering half a million dollars in ransom payments and cryptocurrency, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said Tuesday.
People pay tribute to the statues of former leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il on Mansu Hill in Pyongyang, on the occasion of 28th anniversary of the death of former President Kim Il Sung on Friday, July 8, 2022. The FBI and Justice Department recently disrupted the activities of a hacking group that was sponsored by the North Korean government and that targeted U.S.
In this case, Monaco said, a Kansas hospital that paid a ransom last year after being attacked by ransomware also contacted the FBI, which traced the payment and identified China-based money launderers who assisted the North Korean hackers in cashing out the illicit proceeds. The FBI was able to recover half a million dollars, including the entire ransom payment from the hospital.
U.S. officials in 2021 scrambled to confront a wave of high-profile ransomware attacks -- in which hackers encrypt or lock up a victim's data and demand exorbitant sums to return it -- including against a crucial fuel pipeline on the East Coast. Though the pace of such large-scale, front-page attacks seems to have slowed, smaller targets -- such as hospitals -- continue to be affected.
"The other thing we're seeing more and more of is ransomware actors doing more than just locking up the system," Wray said. "They're exfiltrating the information, they're threatening to release your proprietary information."
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