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North Korean hackers have broken into South Korean chip equipment makers, according to South Korea’s spy agency. This comes after South Korea’s NIS, or the National Intelligence Service, has been claiming for years that Pyongyang is trying to make semiconductors for its weapons programmes.
The hack’s revelation comes a month after President Yoon Suk Yeol warned that North Korea may stage provocations, such as cyberattacks, to interfere with upcoming elections.
Last year, North Korea hacked into the emails of an aide to President Yoon.
“We believe that North Korea might possibly be preparing to produce its semiconductors in the face of difficulties in procuring them due to sanctions,” the NIS said in a statement.
It added that Pyongyang’s efforts could be driven by the need for chips for its weapons programs, including satellites and missiles.
The NIS believes North Korea penetrated the servers of two chip equipment companies in December and February, stealing product designs and photographs of their facilities.
It also warned other companies in the chipmaking industry to take precautions against cyber attacks.
However, the spy agency did not name the firms affected nor suggest that North Korea was able to obtain anything of value.
The NIS said South Korea’s companies had been a critical target of North Korean hackers since late last year.
It believes hackers employed a technique called “living off the land,” which minimizes malicious codes and uses existing, legitimate tools installed within servers, making it difficult to detect with security software.
Last month, President Yoon’s office said that a violation of security regulations caused the breach of an aide’s email account and that its official system had not been hacked.
Pyongyang has always denied involvement in cyber-crimes, but Seoul has blamed North Korean hackers for stealing large sums of money, often in cryptocurrency, to fund the regime and its nuclear weapons program.
North Korea is estimated to have stolen as much as $3bn since 2016.
It is also thought to carry out hacks to steal state secrets, including details of advanced weapons technology.
The country, which is subject to extreme international sanctions, is becoming increasingly more sophisticated in the way it carries out cyber attacks.
