\n
![](\"https:\/\/images.cointelegraph.com\/images\/840_aHR0cHM6Ly9zMy5jb2ludGVsZWdyYXBoLmNvbS91cGxvYWRzLzIwMjItMTAvMWMwMjJlMGQtNWIwYS00M2M2LTg3MTMtY2YyNjc0YmM3YmIzLmpwZw==.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
Japan\u2019s national police have pinned North Korean hacking group, Lazarus, as the organization behind several years of crypto-related cyber attacks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the public advisory statement<\/a> sent out on Oct. 14,\u00a0 Japan\u2019s National Police Agency (NPA) and Financial Services Agency (FSA) sent a warning to the country’s crypto-asset businesses, asking them to stay vigilant of \u201cphishing\u201d attacks by the hacking groupaimed at stealing crypto assets. <\/p>\n The advisory statement is known as \u201cpublic attribution,\u201d and according<\/a> to local reports, is the fifth time in history that the government has issued such a warning. <\/p>\n The statement warns that the hacking group uses social engineering to orchestrate phishing attacks \u2014 impersonating executives of a target company to try and bait employees into clicking malicious links or attachments:<\/p>\n \u201cThis cyber attack group sends phishing emails to employees impersonating executives of the target company […] through social networking sites with false accounts, pretending to conduct business transactions […] The cyber-attack group [then] uses the malware as a foothold to gain access to the victim’s network.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n According to the statement, phishing has been a common mode of attack used by North Korean hackers, with the NPA and FSA urging targeted companies to keep their \u201cprivate keys in an offline environment\u201d and to \u201cnot open email attachments or hyperlinks carelessly.\u201d<\/p>\n The statement added that individuals and businesses should \u201cnot download files from sources other than those whose authenticity can be verified, especially for applications related to cryptographic assets.\u201d<\/p>\n The NPA also suggested that digital asset holders \u201cinstall security software,\u201d strengthen identity authentication mechanisms by \u201cimplementing multi-factor authentication\u201d and not use the same password for multiple devices or services.<\/p>\n The NPA confirmed that several of these attacks have been successfully carried out against Japanese-based digital asset firms, but didn\u2019t disclose any specific details.<\/p>\n Related: <\/em><\/strong>\u2018Nobody is holding them back\u2019 \u2014 North Korean cyber-attack threat rises<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Lazarus Group is allegedly affiliated with North Korea\u2019s Reconnaissance General Bureau, a government-run foreign intelligence group.<\/p>\n Katsuyuki Okamoto of multinational IT firm Trend Micro told<\/a>\u00a0The Yomiuri Shimbun that \u201cLazarus initially targeted banks in various countries, but recently it has been aiming at crypto assets that are managed more loosely.\u201d<\/p>\n They have been accused of being the hackers behind the $650 million Ronin Bridge exploit in March,<\/a> and were identified as suspects in the $100 million attack from layer-1 blockchain Harmony.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n