Microsoft’s report lists Finland’s defense industry as one of the spying targets of North Korean hackers.
Information security attacks are used to obtain, for example, information that North Korea can use to develop its own military technology. LAURIE OLANDER
North Korea has broken into the information systems of the Finnish defense industry.
Microsoft’s report Information security threats in the direction of Asia list Finland as one of North Korea’s interests. According to the report, the North Korean cyber intelligence unit has also managed to break into the data of Finnish defense technology companies.
North Korea’s cyber intelligence collects revenue and intelligence for the state through cryptocurrency theft and data breaches. In terms of intelligence, the focus is on collecting information both on the actions of states perceived as threatening and on the defense capabilities of other states.
Russia as an object of inquiry
Finland is among the countries to which North Korea has targeted a significant amount of espionage activities. According to the report, five percent of the intelligence was aimed at Finland between March 2022 and 2023. For example, Turkey, Norway and India also received the same amount of attention from North Korean cyber intelligence units.
Most cyber attacks were targeted at Germany, Israel, South Korea and Russia. The share of each was nine percent. The share of the United States was seven percent.
Although North Korea has shown support for Russia in its war against Ukraine, North Korean hackers have targeted data breaches and sent snooping messages to, among others, a Russian research center and diplomatic email accounts.
North Korea is especially interested in marine technology and its research. Data breaches targeting companies in these sectors have possibly promoted North Korea in the development of underwater drones and submarine-launched missiles. At least data breaches and trial uses are linked together.
There was news about this in Finland earlier Evening News.