US charges North Korean programmer Park Jin-hyok over WannaCry, Sony cyberattacks
Park Jin-hyok was ‘part of the conspiracy’ that masterminded those notorious hacks ‘on behalf of the Government of North Korea or the Workers’ Party of Korea’, say US government agencies
The US charged a North Korean programmer on Thursday with some of the most dramatic global hacking cases of recent years, alleging they were carried out on behalf of the regime in Pyongyang.
The hacks included the WannaCry 2.0 virus, the 2014 Sony Pictures attack, and the 2016 cyber-heist of Bangladesh’s central bank.
The US Justice and Treasury Departments said Park Jin-hyok was “part of the conspiracy” that masterminded those notorious hacks “on behalf of the Government of North Korea or the Workers’ Party of Korea”.
The Justice Department unveiled criminal charges related to the hacking against Park, while the Treasury announced financial sanctions on him and a government-controlled company he worked for, Chosun Expo Joint Venture.
“North Korea has demonstrated a pattern of disruptive and harmful cyber activity that is inconsistent with the growing consensus on what constitutes responsible state behavior in cyberspace,” the Treasury said in a statement.