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KIMSUKY APT POSES AS JOURNALISTS AND BROADCAST WRITERS IN ITS ATTACKS

June 3, 2023  By Pierluigi Paganini




NORTH KOREA-LINKED APT GROUP KIMSUKY IS POSING AS JOURNALISTS TO GATHER
INTELLIGENCE, A JOINT ADVISORY FROM NSA AND FBI WARNS.

A joint advisory from the FBI, the U.S. Department of State, the National
Security Agency (NSA), South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS),
National Police Agency (NPA), and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), warns
that North-Korea-linked Kimsuky APT group has been impersonating journalists and
academics in a spear-phishing campaign aimed at individuals employed by research
centers and think tanks, academic institutions, and news media organizations.

Kimsuky cyberespionage group (aka ARCHIPELAGO, Black Banshee, Thallium, Velvet
Chollima, APT43) was first spotted by Kaspersky researcher in 2013. At the end
of October 2020, the US-CERT published a report on Kimusky’s recent
activities that provided information on their TTPs and infrastructure.


00:00/00:00


The APT group mainly targets think tanks and organizations in South Korea, other
victims were in the United States, Europe, and Russia.

In the latest Kimsuky campaign, the state-sponsored group focused on nuclear
agendas between China and North Korea, relevant to the ongoing war between
Russia and Ukraine.

“Some targeted entities may discount the threat posed by these social
engineering campaigns, either because they do not perceive their research and
communications as sensitive in nature, or because they are not aware of how
these efforts fuel the regime’s broader cyber espionage efforts. However, as
outlined in this advisory, North Korea relies heavily on intelligence gained by
compromising policy analysts.” reads the joint advisory. “Further, successful
compromises enable Kimsuky actors to craft more credible and effective
spearphishing emails that can be leveraged against more sensitive, higher-value
targets.” 

The APT group has persistently refined its social engineering tactics, making
its spear-phishing campaigns progressively harder to detect.

Kimsuky spear-phishing campaigns are often prepared with a detailed
information-gathering activity aimed at identifying potential targets, then
threat actors create a tailored network of online personas to appear more
realistic and appealing to their victims.

Threat actors often impersonate real journalists and broadcast writers to appear
as a credible front and make inquiries to prominent about political events in
the Korean peninsula.

“Usually, the questions will revolve around current events and whether U.S.
experts believe North Korea will re-join talks with the U.S., whether they
believe North Korea will resume testing its missiles, and how they see China
responding.” continues the advisory. “In many instances, Kimsuky actors do not
attach malware to their initial email. Instead, they first send an introductory
email to inquire about interview opportunities.”







The state-sponsored hackers initially send the request for the interview to the
victims, the initial messages don’t contain malicious attachments or links. Once
the attackers gained the victim’s trust the attackers send the questionnaire to
the victim.

If the target does not respond to the spear-phishing emails, the threat actors
send a follow-up message a few days later.




In some attacks, the state-sponsored hackers impersonated South Korean academic
scholars asking to researchers at think tanks to participate in a survey, such
as on North Korean nuclear issues and denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula
or requesting an email interview.

In additional instances, Kimsuky operatives assume the identities of respected
researchers affiliated with South Korean think tanks, then send spear-phishing
emails to political figures and North Korean experts.

Kimsuky actors were also observed impersonating officials handling North Korean
policies within governmental entities like the South Korean National Assembly or
the presidential office.

Additionally, the APT group also impersonates operators or administrators of
popular web portals claiming that a victim’s account has been locked following
suspicious activity or fraudulent use.

The advisory includes potential mitigation measures for email recipients and
recipients’ systems administrators.

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, APT)


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PIERLUIGI PAGANINI

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and
Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he
is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer.
Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security
expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical
Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that
security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security
blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US.
Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some
major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island,
Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security
magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency
and Bitcoin”.




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