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- FBI warns that North Korea targets major crypto institutions with sophisticated social engineering scams.
- North Korean hackers have stolen $3B so far.
- Social engineering scams also include fake job postings and ‘pig butchering’ schemes.
You roll out of bed, stagger over to your desk, and login to Slack and your company email at Central Coin Exchange, Inc. It’s time for another hard day at work managing fat stacks of Bitcoin for your industry-leading crypto exchange.
Time to laugh at the degens frantically chasing the latest meme coins on obscure DEXs; you know that the true path to crypto wealth is to earn six figures in good, old-fashioned fiat currency, HODL $BTC on your custodial wallet, and then HODL some more.
But first, you’ve got a catch-up call from a ‘Slightly Bigger Boss.’ Not the ‘Biggest Boss’, of course (so it doesn’t look too unrealistic), but definitely a name you know.
You met them once during the interview process eight months ago. You’re also flattered they’ve taken the time to check in!
They’d been kind enough to drop an email last week mentioning they’d be reaching out to you. The invite’s at 9:30, so you zip through some emails and then click the link.
It’s not a Zoom or Google Meets link, so that’s a bit odd. But you brush it off, still starstruck about the possibility of a personal check-in with Slightly Bigger Boss.
The video conferencing software goes live, but no one appears. Strange. After ten minutes, you suspect a mistake, so you leave the meeting room and send a quick email to the Slightly Bigger Boss.
It’s only later, when millions go missing from the exchange’s wallets that someone sends you this FBI warning.
The hack is huge; most of your $BTC vanishes, and the exchange’s corporate wallets are largely drained before the dev team can stop it.
And that’s when it clicks. Remember the email your Slightly Bigger Boss sent you, the one with the weird video conferencing link? You now realize, with a sinking feeling, that it was entirely fake.
North Korean Hackers Aim At Crypto Finance Employees
Sound too far-fetched? Not according to the FBI, which is warning that North Korean state-sponsored hackers are using advanced social engineering tactics to compromise employees within the cryptocurrency sector.
This includes decentralized finance and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
The hackers conduct extensive pre-operational research (personal and professional information) on potential targets to craft personalized attacks.
Attackers often impersonate known individuals, such as recruiters or tech professionals. You know, people just like the Slightly Bigger Boss. The former tactic is a favorite of NK hackers, a UN investigation found.
And like the hypothetical case above, they use stolen photos and craft fake profiles on professional networks to get you to trust them. There’s no sign of poor English, and no obvious giveaways. They also communicate fluently and are highly knowledgeable about the cryptocurrency industry.
All this hides a sinister goal – deploying malware that lets hackers steal significant amounts of cryptocurrency from centralized exchanges and major financial institutions.
And it looks like a winning recipe – North Korean hackers have stolen upwards of $3B so far using social engineering schemes.
Advanced Cybersecurity Awareness Now a Crypto Must-Have
Crypto social engineering scams are becoming increasingly common in crypto, and even individuals with advanced technical knowledge can fall victim to them.
Social engineering schemes exploit human psychology using trust, urgency, and fear to manipulate us. Attackers use proven methods like phishing, impersonation, and various pretexts to exploit our trust and tendency to make mistakes, or both.
These techniques are highly effective at breaching even well-secured organizations because they bypass a person’s technical acumen.
It doesn’t matter that you’re a crypto guru – that ‘trusted’ Telegram confidant or the Slightly Bigger Boss honoring you with an email can be the hackers’ way in.
How do you detect social engineering schemes early and avoid becoming a victim? Learn to develop human security measures (like wondering why your boss’s boss took a sudden interest in a brand-new employee like you), not just technical know-how.
It’s all a crucial part of modern life and the rapidly-evolving world of crypto hacks and cybersecurity, where every link, download, or QR code can be an entry point for malware and bad actors to steal bank and crypto wallet credentials.
References
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article do not constitute financial advice. We encourage readers to conduct their own research and determine their own risk tolerance before making any financial decisions. Cryptocurrency is a highly volatile, high-risk asset class.
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