South Korean chipmakers subjected to North Korean cyberattacks

At least two semiconductor equipment manufacturers in South Korea were noted by the country's National Intelligence Service to have had their systems breached by North Korean state-sponsored threat operations in December to steal product designs that would support North Korea's chipmaking sector, The Register reports.

North Korean hackers facilitated compromise through the exploitation of software vulnerabilities before proceeding with the utilization of legitimate admin tools and other living-off-the-land techniques to conceal malicious operations, according to an advisory from the NIS. Organizations impacted by the breaches have already been given assistance to strengthen network security while other semiconductor firms across South Korea have been urged to monitor potential North Korean threats within their networks. Such a warning follows a joint NIS and German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution alert regarding North Korean state-backed attackers' widespread targeting of defense sector organizations worldwide, including the efforts of the hacking collective Lazarus Group.