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North Korea Could Be Secretly Mining Cryptocurrency On Your Computer (qz.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: North Korea has a cryptocurrency infatuation. Its government has been accused of unleashing a global ransomware attack to raise bitcoin, mining the cryptocurrency within its borders, and hacking South Korean bitcoin exchanges. Now, research firm Recorded Future says there's a strong chance Kim Jong-un's regime is experimenting with malware that secretly mines currency using other people's computers. Malware crypto-mining is a new global trend among hackers, says a new report from Recorded Future, which monitors discussions among "the criminal underground" on the so-called dark web. Starting this year, hackers seem to be shifting away from high-intensity, widespread ransomware attacks, towards "long-term, low velocity" crypto-mining in the background. Recorded Future has not detected specific instances of North Korean malware mining, but believes that the regime has the knowhow, motive, and interest in cryptocurrencies to execute similar attacks. "North Korean threat actors have prior experience in assembling and managing botnets, bitcoin mining, and cryptocurrency theft, as well as in custom altering publicly available malware; three elements that would be key to effectively creating and managing a network of covert cryptocurrency miners," Recorded Future's report reads.

14 of 102 comments (clear)

  1. ohhh soo scary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    you mean how American companies secretly mine bitcoin using javascript?

    Enjoy your western propaganda FUD of the day

    1. Re:ohhh soo scary by jwhyche · · Score: 2

      Which seems to be a good reason to run the Edge browser. I don't believe it supports java anything.

      --
      I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
  2. No, They Are Not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "Recorded Future has not detected specific instances of North Korean malware mining"

    But we're still going to make up a sensationalist story about it so that maybe you can visit our page that does Coinhive you into generating some cryptocurrency.

    Thanks M'Smash, you really suck!

  3. It fits by pr0t0 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I have a long-standing axiom that the more something is advertised to be true, the less likely it is to actually be true. Oft-repeated superlative phrases like "fastest network", "number one in service", "widest selection", etc. can generally be taken as slowest, worst, and limited respectively.

    If you feel like you're being manipulated, it's because you are. This is particularly true when you see sudden ramp-up in coverage about a story, nation, or technology where previously there had been none. A single story is one thing, but one followed by a break of a few months and then two more with shorter breaks between, then suddenly one every 2-3 weeks on the same subject sets off my BS meter.

    --
    I'm sorry, but your opinion seems to be wrong.
    1. Re: It fits by GNious · · Score: 2

      We'll "win" that war. There will be much rejoicing in SK.

      If you lot go to war with Best Korea, fully expect a scorched earth approach from them, targeting South Korea.

  4. Speculation isn't news by SlithyMagister · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Any /. article whose subject includes "could be" or similar wording is speculation, not news.
    Almost anything "could" happen.

    TFS says there's "a strong chance" that NK is doing something, but presents no evidence.
    From TFA: "Recorded Future has not detected specific instances of North Korean malware mining"

    Articles such as this are tabloid-worthy, and IMO reduce the overall quality of /.
    Enjoy your day.

  5. I thought I was being targeted in a scam by TomR+teh+Pirate · · Score: 4, Funny

    I thought I was being targeted in a scam when that woman with the Indian accent and claiming to be from Microsoft told me my computer was spreading viruses on the internet, but maybe it was all true. I hang my head in shame for the things I said to her.

  6. Really? by Weaselmancer · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Recorded Future has not detected specific instances of North Korean malware mining, but believes that the regime has the knowhow, motive, and interest in cryptocurrencies to execute similar attacks.

    So in other words - you have exactly nothing to say, but spent an entire article saying it.

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    Weaselmancer
    rediculous.
  7. Re:What you can conclude from these constant news: by Ogive17 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    As an American, I also blame our own government. However to deny the actions of Russia and N. Korea simply because you don't like the US... that's incredibly naive.

    I have family in Japan - there are legitimate concerns about missiles flying over their country. They have enough to worry about with earthquakes, volcanoes, typhoons, nuclear plant meltdown.. missiles from N. Korea is a bit over the top.

    Russia - they invaded Ukraine and still occupy part of it. They are just as active covertly in the affairs of every government as the US is. To them, it must be funny watching a significant portion of Americans deny reality because "their guy" won the election.

    Now I don't believe their meddling in the election had a big impact.. Hillary just isn't a likable person. Did it sway some votes... probably.. was it enough to change the outcome? Highly unlikely. Hillary still got more votes, just not in the places she needed them.

    --
    "Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
  8. It's funny to watch us gearing up for war by rsilvergun · · Score: 2

    with a constant stream of anti-NK news in all outlets. Seriously, they did this for Iraq too and nobody remembers it. Or if they do they don't care, they're just looking forward to the next war.

    BTW, what are we gonna do with 22 million shell shocked refugees in a country that doesn't have any natural resources whatsoever?

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
  9. Who will win?!? by RumGunner · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Will fear-mongering warhawks trying to scare the public against the "red" threat succeed in getting Bitcoin banned? Or will Wall Street crony-captalists eager to scam as much money out of digital currency as possible prevail?

    Could this be the end of Bitcoin?!?! Will a nuclear-powered DPRK succeed in harvesting every last drop of your spare processor power??!? Will Wall Street bilch billions from Americans before driving Bitcoin into the ground?

    I can make sensationalist headlines too.

  10. Re:What's with these headlines? by Areyoukiddingme · · Score: 2

    (insert evil country/government/company name here) could be secretly (insert hot topic of the day here) on your (computer|smartphone|tablet|smart tv|digital assistant|electric car)

    It's called clickbait. Just slightly more sophisticated clickbait than one weird trick, but still clickbait.

    I can't wait for the collapse of Internet advertising to finally come to fruition. Unfortunately I'm probably going to be waiting a very long time. PT Barnum was right: there's a sucker born every minute. There are enough suckers to fuel Internet advertising for the rest of eternity.

    I did my part. I didn't click on the link to the article. But my ability to stem the tide is a match for King Canute.

  11. Re:What you can conclude from these constant news: by DCFusor · · Score: 2

    Agreed. People should look at the big picture and the norms (which aren't great for any player here) before using a small sample of recent events as justification for hateful opinions. This isn't really new stuff here to justify extra "Russia-bad" think, though obviously there are people who think their paychecks depend on that meme posting. In fact we've "poked the bear" damn hard a few times lately, with a very statesmanlike response on their part...we'd have never put up with what we've done to them, but they've put up with mistreatment (so far) pretty nicely...
    I'm not pro-Russian-government - but I don't hate Russians or pretty much anyone else. I'm not fond of most governments and the lies they tell their people to subjugate them, though. Russia's far from alone on that scorecard...Which was really my point.
    FWIW, they are kinda recovering from having lost their previous empire. They had exactly two warm-water naval ports...One in Crimea, the other one in Syria. Guess where we've been meddling and trying to "spread democracy"? No government is telling us the truth that it's really all about who gets to run pipelines from where (either Arab or Russian) to the EU to keep them warm and cop their bucks. Yep, follow the money, the rest is just PR and propaganda kark.

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    Why guess when you can know? Measure!
  12. Re:What you can conclude from these constant news: by jwhyche · · Score: 2

    Hillary was probably the ONLY Democrat who could lose to a blowhard like Trump.

    Seriously, this is what I've been saying for a year now. Trump didn't so much as win as Hilary lost the election. Most people that I know that voted for Trump tell me they voted for him because they just couldn't vote for Hillary.

    This line should put everything is perspective about Hillary Clinton. "She lost to Donald Trump."

    --
    I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.