English Entertainment
Sony Pictures & global banks among targets of N. Korean hackers, says Group-IB
MUMBAI: Group-IB, one of the global leaders in providing high-grade Threat Intelligence and best in class anti-fraud solutions vendor, has published a detailed report leaving no doubt that Lazarus, a cyber gang that attempted to steal about 1 billion USD from the Central Bank of Bangladesh and compromised a number of Polish banks, was connected to North Korea. Deep analysis of the cybercriminals’ Command & Control infrastructure as well as detailed Threat Intelligence information enabled the researchers to prove that the attacks were managed from Pyongyang.
Group-IB is one of the global leaders in preventing and investigating high-tech crimes and online fraud. The company is recognized by Gartner as a threat intelligence vendor with strong cyber security focus and the ability to provide leading insight to the Eastern European region and recommended by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
What is Lazarus?
Lazarus (also known as Dark Seoul Gang) is known to DDoS and hack governmental, military, and aerospace institutions worldwide. The earliest known attack that the group is responsible for is known as “Troy Operation”, which took place from 2009-2012. This was a cyber-espionage campaign that utilized unsophisticated DDoS techniques to target the South Korean government in Seoul. They are also responsible for attacks in 2011 and 2013. A notable hack that the group is known for is the 2014 attack on Sony Pictures, when personal information about the employees and their families, internal e-mails, copies of then-unreleased Sony films as well as other information was published. The Sony attack used more sophisticated techniques and highlighted how advanced the group has become over time. When the global economic pressure on North Korea increased, Lazarus shifted its focus to international financial organizations for financial and espionage gains. In 2016, the group attempted to steal about $951mln from the Central Bank of Bangladesh SWIFT; however, a mistake in a payment request cut the criminals’ income to only $81 mln.
What’s so peculiar about Group-IB’s report?
Previous reports were focused on either malware analysis, or the attribution based on malware analysis. However, since the attribution based on malware code similarities is not always reliable, Group-IB has focused on infrastructure research. The company’s experts conducted an in-depth investigation of Lazarus activity and gained unique insight into their complex botnet infrastructure built by the hacker group to conduct their attacks. Despite the complex three-layer architecture, encrypted channels, VPN services, and other advanced techniques, the researchers managed to identify that the group was operating from Potonggang District, North Korea — perhaps coincidentally, where National Defense Commission was located, previously the highest military body in North Korea.
Dmitry Volkov, Head of Threat Intelligence Department and сo-founder of Group-IB: “Our research testified that North Korean Lazarus group is taking extraordinary precaution measures, dividing the attacks into several stages and launching all the modules manually. So that even if the attack is detected, it would take security researchers much time and effort to investigate it. To mask malicious activity, the hackers used a three-layer C&C infrastructure and pretended to be Russians.”
Through analysis of compromised networks, Group-IB identified IP addresses of universities in the US, Canada, Great Britain, India, Bulgaria, Poland, Turkey, pharmaceutical companies in Japan and China, as well as government subnets in various countries.
“Taking into consideration strengthening economic sanctions against North Korea, as well as the geopolitical tension in the region, we expect a new wave of Lazarus attacks against global financial institutions. With that said, we strongly recommend the banks learn more about targeted attacks’ tactics and techniques, increase corporate cybersecurity awareness, and cooperate with the companies providing relevant Threat Intelligence,” Volkov added.
UK: The aerial is losing its grip. As broadband becomes the default way Britons watch television, the UK is edging towards a decisive, and divisive, question: should Freeview be switched off by 2034? The issue, highlighted in reporting by The Guardian, has exposed deep fault lines over access, affordability and the future of public service broadcasting.
For nearly 25 years, Freeview has delivered free-to-air television from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 to almost every corner of the country. Even now, it remains the UK’s largest TV platform, used in more than 16m homes and on around 10m main household sets. Yet the same broadcasters that built it are now pressing for its closure within eight years.
Their case rests on a structural shift in viewing. Smart TVs, superfast broadband and the Netflix-led streaming boom have pulled audiences online. Advertising economics have followed. By 2034, the number of homes using Freeview as their main TV set is forecast to fall from a peak of almost 12m in 2012 to fewer than 2m, making digital terrestrial television, or DTT, increasingly costly to sustain.
But critics say the rush to switch off risks abandoning those least able, or least willing, to move online.
“I don’t want to be choosing apps and making new accounts,” says Lynette, 80, from Kent. “It is time-consuming and irritating trying to work out where I want to be, to remember the sequence of clicks, with hieroglyphics instead of words. If I make a mistake I have to start again.”
Lynette is among nearly 100,000 people who have signed a “save Freeview” petition launched by campaign group Silver Voices. She fears the government is about to “take [Freeview] away from me and others who either don’t like, can’t afford, or can’t use online versions”.
Official figures underline the fault lines. A report commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport estimates that by 2035, 1.8m homes will still depend on Freeview. Ofcom’s analysis shows those households are more likely to be disabled, older, living alone, female, and based in the north of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Freeview is owned by the public service broadcasters through Everyone TV, which also operates Freesat and the newer streaming platform Freely. After two years of review, DCMS is expected to set out its position soon, drawing on three options proposed by Ofcom: a costly upgrade of Freeview’s ageing technology; maintaining a bare-bones service with only core PSB channels; or a full switch-off during the 2030s.
The broadcasters have rallied behind the third option. They argue that 2034 is the logical cut-off, when transmission contracts with network operator Arqiva expire. By then, they say, the cost of broadcasting to a dwindling audience will far outweigh the returns from TV advertising.
Ofcom agrees a crunch point is approaching. In July, the regulator warned of a “tipping point” within the next few years, after which it will no longer be commercially viable for broadcasters to carry the costs of DTT.
Others see risks beyond economics. Questions remain over whether internet TV can reliably deliver emergency broadcasts, such as the daily Covid updates, in the way that universally available DTT can. The UK radio industry has also warned that an internet-only future for TV could push up distribution costs and force some radio stations off air if PSBs no longer share Arqiva’s mast network.
“It is a political hot potato,” says Dennis Reed, founder of Silver Voices, who says he has “dissociated” his organisation from the government’s stakeholder forum, which he believes is “heavily biased” towards streaming.
The Future TV Taskforce, representing the PSBs, counters that moving online could “close the digital divide once and for all”. “We want to be able to plan to ensure that no one is left behind,” a spokesperson says, adding that rising DTT costs could otherwise mean cuts to programme budgets.
The numbers show the scale of the challenge. Of the 1.8m Freeview-dependent homes projected for 2035, around 1.1m are expected to have broadband but not use it for TV. The remaining 700,000 are forecast to lack a broadband connection altogether.
Veterans of the analogue switch-off, completed in 2012 after 76 years, recall similar fears of “TV blackout chaos”. Around 6 per cent of households were labelled “digital refuseniks”, yet a targeted help scheme and a national campaign, fronted by a robot called Digit Al voiced by Matt Lucas, delivered a largely smooth transition.
This time, the BBC is less keen to foot the bill. Tim Davie, the outgoing director general, has said the corporation should not fund a comparable support programme for a Freeview switch-off.
Research for Sky by Oliver & Ohlbaum suggests that with early awareness campaigns and digital inclusion measures, only about 330,000 households would ultimately need hands-on help ahead of a 2034 shutdown.
Meanwhile, viewing habits continue to fragment. Audience body Barb says 7 per cent of UK households no longer own a TV set, choosing to watch on other devices. In December, YouTube overtook the BBC’s combined channels in total UK viewing across TVs, smartphones and tablets, albeit measured at a minimum of three minutes.
That shift may accelerate. YouTube has recently blocked Barb and its partner Kantar from accessing viewing session data, limiting transparency just as online platforms consolidate power.
“When the government chose British Satellite Broadcasting as the ‘winner’ in satellite TV it was Rupert Murdoch’s Sky instead that came out on top,” says a senior TV executive quoted by The Guardian. “There already is such an outsider ready to be the winner in the transition to internet TV; it is YouTube.”
Freeview’s future now hangs on a familiar British dilemma: modernise fast and risk exclusion, or protect universality and pay the price. Either way, the aerial’s days as king of the living room look numbered.
