A series of cyberattacks on institutions from 31 countries has been blamed on the North Korea-linked Lazarus group. The notorious hackers have previously been accused of stealing money from a bank in Bangladesh and the 2014 incident that crippled Sony Pictures.
Symantec reported discovering four pieces of the same malware among the victims. According to the security experts, the attacks had been underway since October 2016. It would appear that the issue was caught in the early stages, and no real damage has been done to the victims.
Despite this, the actual victims have not been identified. Symantec’s blog post only indicates that the primary target were banks in Poland, the US, and Mexico. However, samples of the malware were also found across other countries; and in some telcos and internet firms.
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Reuters reports that Polish and US authorities have declined to comment on the matter.
In all fairness, the identity of the individuals behind Lazarus is unknown. The FBI had originally accused North Korea of being behind the attacks after the Sony Pictures hack; while South Korea has made similar links after its banks were targeted in a wave of cyberattacks.
