APT38 — APT Profile
APT38 is a North Korean state-sponsored threat group that specializes in financial cyber operations; it has been attributed to the Reconnaissance General Bureau. Active since at least 2014, APT38 has targeted banks, financial institutions, casinos, cryptocurrency exchanges, SWIFT system endpoints, and ATMs in at least 38 countries worldwide. Significant operations include the 2016 Bank of Bangladesh heist, during which APT38 stole $81 million, as well as attacks against Bancomext and Banco de Chile ; some of their attacks have been destructive. North Korean group definitions are known to have significant overlap, and some security researchers report all North Korean state-sponsored cyber activity under the name Lazarus Group instead of tracking clusters or subgroups.Also tracked as
NICKEL GLADSTONE, BeagleBoyz, Bluenoroff, Stardust Chollima, Sapphire Sleet, COPERNICIUM
Tools & malware
- DarkComet Remote Access Trojan
- ECCENTRICBANDWAGON Backdoor
- HOPLIGHT Backdoor
- KillDisk Wiper
- Mimikatz Credential Harvesting
- Net Network Reconnaissance
Vendor research
- How Microsoft names threat actors Microsoft
- NICKEL GLADSTONE Threat Profile SecureWorks
- Three North Korean Military Hackers Indicted in Wide-Ranging Scheme to Commit Cyberattacks and Financial Crimes Across the Globe DOJ
- FASTCash 2.0: North Korea's BeagleBoyz Robbing Banks CISA AA
- NICKEL GLADSTONE Threat Profile Secureworks
- Lazarus Under the Hood Kaspersky
- Meet CrowdStrike’s Adversary of the Month for April: STARDUST CHOLLIMA Crowdstrike
- APT38: Un-usual Suspects FireEye
- CrowdStrike 2021 Global Threat Report Crowdstrike