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The Lazarus heist: How North Korea almost pulled off a billion-dollar hack

bbc.com

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Re: The Lazarus heist: How North Korea almost pulled off a billion-dollar hack

#41

Post by a1369209993 »

rtpg wrote: post #30
zerr wrote: post #18

Tangential question: in order to become educated/expert in some field (e.g. IT) one needs the freedom of doing research, free access to information, Internet, thus exposure to "western"/civilized values, human rights, etc... So how NK "produces" such experts behind the iron curtain?

Exposure to “Western”/civilized values? What are you even talking about? Yes you can learn to be a script kiddy and plan heists without having the pledge of allegiance as part of a balanced breakfast. Books and random websites and stuff! Not to mention that people from NK or China don’t just explode from logic errors after discovering Facebook. And yes people have ways of getting around internet blocking stuff for “r…

> > one needs the freedom of doing research, free access to information, Internet, thus exposure to "western"/civilized values, human rights, etc

> What are you even talking about?

Charitably, I assume they're talking about something like [0], although calling that ""western"/civilized values" is giving western civilization more credit than it deserves if recent sociopolitics (Facebook included) is any indication.

0: https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/10/23/kolmogorov-complicity-...

Re: The Lazarus heist: How North Korea almost pulled off a billion-dollar hack

#42

Post by meowface »

BTCOG wrote: post #38

Not spoken about here is the fact that Lazarus __did__ make off with well over a billion dollars in funds by hacking numerous cryptocurrency exchanges around Asia and got away with it, too. https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2021/02/09/north... Oh, and this is just KuCoin they're talking about here. They stole well over $3 billion more from several other exchanges in 2017-2018. All the exchange hacks back th…

That was included at the end of the article:

>In the ensuing years, tech security firms have attributed many more cryptocurrency attacks to North Korea. They claim the country's hackers have targeted exchanges where cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are swapped for traditional currencies. Added together, some estimates put the thefts from these exchanges at more than $2bn.

Re: The Lazarus heist: How North Korea almost pulled off a billion-dollar hack

#43

Post by rtpg »

a1369209993 wrote: post #41
rtpg wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exposure to “Western”/civilized values? What are you even talking about? Yes you can learn to be a script kiddy and plan heists without having the pledge of allegiance as part of a balanced breakfast. Books and random websites and stuff! Not to mention that people from NK or China don’t just explode from logic errors after discovering Facebook. And yes people have ways of getting around internet blocking stuff for “r…

> > one needs the freedom of doing research, free access to information, Internet, thus exposure to "western"/civilized values, human rights, etc > What are you even talking about? Charitably, I assume they're talking about something like [0], although calling that ""western"/civilized values" is giving western civilization more credit than it deserves if recent sociopolitics (Facebook included) is any indication. 0:…

I mean "lets purge our academics of non-believers" is a practice applied in basically every society, for time immemorial.

The non-charitable reading is that they're implying that "access to information" is the blocker from NKers just rising up and accepting "western" norms, and _if only they knew how amazing society could be_, they would change their minds.

It's the same brainworms as the liberal "oh, if only you knew all the facts then you would agree with me". It implies some sort of objective truth that western society has found, yet these societies haven't.

Educated people in NK know about voting and democracy. It's not some super well-kept secret to keep the masses down. Censorship is just applied in much more banal ways (preventing too much embarassing information about people in power from spreading, and making it hard for any form of opposition to organize itself)

Re: The Lazarus heist: How North Korea almost pulled off a billion-dollar hack

#44

Post by a1369209993 »

rtpg wrote: post #43
a1369209993 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> > one needs the freedom of doing research, free access to information, Internet, thus exposure to "western"/civilized values, human rights, etc > What are you even talking about? Charitably, I assume they're talking about something like [0], although calling that ""western"/civilized values" is giving western civilization more credit than it deserves if recent sociopolitics (Facebook included) is any indication. 0:…

I mean "lets purge our academics of non-believers" is a practice applied in basically every society, for time immemorial. The non-charitable reading is that they're implying that "access to information" is the blocker from NKers just rising up and accepting "western" norms, and _if only they knew how amazing society could be_, they would change their minds. It's the same brainworms as the liberal "oh, if only you kne…

> "lets purge our academics of non-believers" is a practice applied in basically every society, for time immemorial.

> > although calling that ""western"/civilized values" is giving western civilization more credit than it deserves

> The non-charitable reading is

You asked what they were talking about; I gave a educated guess for the strongest plausible interpretation of what[0] they were saying, since it seemed non-obvious (certainly they did a poor job of expressing it if so).

0: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: The Lazarus heist: How North Korea almost pulled off a billion-dollar hack

#45

Post by webmobdev »

baybal2 wrote: post #4

I believe it's overdramatised. The commotion in Bangladesh over missing $1B was bigger not so much because of money missing, but how it went undetected, and covered up. BAL goondas preemptively abducted country's leading computer security guy, beaten him half dead, and made him shut-up for a mere prospect of him being involved into investigation.

Note that a billion dollar didn't go missing - they attempted to steal a billion dollar but only managed to get $81 million, out of which roughly a quarter has been recovered by Bangladesh.

As the article points out, the cover-up started at the highest level, with the governor of the central bank himself not informing the government or law agencies as soon as the news reached him. He tried to hire some other security agencies to trace and retrieve the money, (probably hoping to salvage some of his reputation and following the old maxim that it is better to seek forgiveness than permission). He ofcourse had to resign the next day.

I am sure the law went overboard while investigating a case of this maginitude with huge public pressure on them - it's pretty common in Asia for the police to even resort to torture.

Re: The Lazarus heist: How North Korea almost pulled off a billion-dollar hack

#46

Post by bluefirebrand »

zerr wrote: post #18

Tangential question: in order to become educated/expert in some field (e.g. IT) one needs the freedom of doing research, free access to information, Internet, thus exposure to "western"/civilized values, human rights, etc... So how NK "produces" such experts behind the iron curtain?

I very much doubt North Korea produces a ton of experts on their own.

China is likely happy to supply experts and teaching, though, as long as they are used to disrupt China's opposition. Provides a layer of plausible deniability for China.

Re: The Lazarus heist: How North Korea almost pulled off a billion-dollar hack

#47

Post by jokethrowaway »

londons_explore wrote: post #31
jokethrowaway wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. Just a bit of social engineering and a trojan. The main difference is that they know they have their country's backing and they don't need to account for that risk, allowing them to aim higher.

Does having your countries backing help that much? I assume hackers in other countries simply use a few layers of tor and bounce boxes.

I wouldn't engage in hacking foreign banks if I know I risk going to jail.

If my government is paying to do that, well, it's just another job.

Re: The Lazarus heist: How North Korea almost pulled off a billion-dollar hack

#48

Post by rjmunro »

jetzzz wrote: post #37
magicsmoke wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even in a nonauthoritarian country, defecting means you'll never return again to see your friends and family anyways. Given that, defectors probably consider making a political stand more important than their personal connections regardless of what happens after they leave. Not everybody has a loving family and close friends they can't give up.

You can't return but what is preventing them to come to your new home. Snowden's girlfriend moved to Russia and I think any of his family members can visit him if they want.

> what is preventing them to come to your new home

Maybe the fact that because you defected, they are now in some sort of secret jail or labor camp for the rest of their lives.

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