image copyrightFBI
U.S. authorities announced that hackers supported by the North Korean regime stole more than $400 million in cryptocurrency by using fake video calls to steal other people's identities.
According to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), more than 900 victims of this so-called 'face stealer' scam have been exploited over the past 18 months.
“North Korea has been engaging in large-scale cryptocurrency theft to fund its illicit weapons programs,” said Brett Lederman, FBI cyber director. “They have stolen billions of dollars in recent years.”
This news comes just a week after Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, revealed that hackers stole $6.3 billion (approximately KRW 8.415 trillion), the largest amount ever, through fake job interviews.
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U.S. judicial authorities pointed to North Korean-linked forces as the mastermind behind the Binance incident, which is believed to be the largest cryptocurrency hacking incident in history. However, North Korea denies this.
Authorities explained that the recently emerged face-stealer method "aggressively targets" those involved in the cryptocurrency and Web 3.0 fields, especially those involved in the development and maintenance of open source software.
According to the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice, facestealer hackers create fake social media accounts or steal other people's social media accounts and then lure potential victims into "fake" video conferences impersonating Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, etc.
When the call starts, a person the target of the attack actually knows appears on the screen, but this is actually a pre-recorded video. While pretending to be a normal call, they suddenly pretend to have an audio problem.
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To resolve this, a message will appear asking you to "repair" the audio. When the victim performs this "repair," malware is downloaded to the device, which allows hackers to gain access to contact lists and applications, creating new targets for attack.
According to U.S. authorities, hackers also secretly record these calls and use them to trick new victims.
The FBI described this face-stealer method as "a very effective social engineering (fraud) method that can fool even the most experienced and security-conscious computer users."
Patrick Grandy, deputy director of the FBI's Los Angeles division, said in a statement on the 12th, "This tactic abuses our widely used video conferencing platforms and the trust we place in our precious personal relationships with our acquaintances."
“If you think you won’t fall for these tricks, you’re not thinking creatively enough.”
