연합뉴스1 hour agoTech2 min readSouth Korea

Large-scale information leak: Japanese IT giant says North Korea was behind hacking... reported to government

Hacker demands $1 million ransom, GMO offers bounty for the same amount

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Japan's GMO Internet Group identified a North Korean-linked hacker organization as the mastermind behind the leak of its customer information and reported it to the authorities.
The hacker demanded a ransom of $1 million, and GMO offered a reward of the same amount to any informant who could solve the case.

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Why It Matters

GMO Internet Group said hackers who broke into its servers and PCs demanded a $1 million ransom. Security experts believe that the hacker left traces in several countries to disrupt the investigation.

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(Tokyo = Yonhap News) Correspondent Cho Seong-mi = GMO Internet Group, a Japanese information technology (IT) conglomerate, reported to the authorities that it suspected that a North Korean-linked hacker organization was behind the leak of information of customers using its foreign exchange margin trading (FX) service, Kyodo News reported on the 1st.

GMO Internet Group analyzed the characteristics of malicious software remaining during a series of cyberattacks on its servers and believes that it is highly likely that a North Korean-linked hacker organization was involved.

As a result of Kyodo News, with the help of a security expert, analyzing the site where the group that carried out the cyber attack on the GMO Internet Group revealed the details of the crime, five IP addresses accessed immediately after the site was released matched those used by the North Korean hacker group in the past.

However, the rented server for this site was from an American company, and part of the program that collected visitor records included Japanese.

The files posted on the site were created with Chinese software.

In addition, a user who had made financial transactions without his knowledge after being hacked received an email from a hacker last month, and the sender, believed to be an attacker, was using a Russian name.

Kyodo News estimated that the fact that traces of connections to several countries were revealed in relation to the hacking of the GMO Internet group was deliberately carried out by a group of North Korean hackers to confuse the investigation.

A hacker who claims to have invaded 27,000 servers and personal PCs of GMO Internet Group and stolen user information is demanding $1 million (approximately KRW 1.33 billion) in ransom for the information.

The company said it would not respond to the hacker's demands and instead offered a 'bounty' of $1 million, the same amount as the price for information requested by the criminal. The plan is to pay this to informants who help identify the attacker or uncover the full story of the incident.

What to Watch

AI outlook — possibilities, not facts

GMO Internet Group's attempt to track down the culprit by paying a bounty
Likely · Within weeks

Open Questions

What is the real identity of the hacker organization?
What is the scale of customer information leaked?

Large-scale information leak: Japanese IT giant says North Korea was behind hacking... reported to government

Hacker demands $1 million ransom, GMO offers bounty for the same amount

Quick Look

Japan's GMO Internet Group identified a North Korean-linked hacker organization as the mastermind behind the leak of its customer information and reported it to the authorities.
The hacker demanded a ransom of $1 million, and GMO offered a reward of the same amount to any informant who could solve the case.

AI-generated summary