Kimsuky hacking group faces US sanctions

North Korean state-sponsored hacking operation Kimsuky, also known as APT43, TA406, Black Banshee, Velvet Chollima, and Emerald Sleet, has been sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control in a bid to counter North Korea's deployment of a military reconnaissance satellite supporting its weapons of mass destruction program on Nov. 21, according to BleepingComputer. Also sanctioned were eight North Korean agents involved in the country's WMD program. After initially targeting South Korean organizations, Kimsuky has expanded its intelligence-gathering operations to entities in the U.S., Russia, and Europe, as well as the United Nations. Such sanctions follow the Treasury Department's actions against four North Korean entities engaged in illicit online activities in May, as well as previous sanctions against other North Korean hacking operations Lazarus, Andariel, and Bluenoroff due to money laundering activities in 2019. Cryptocurrency theft by North Korean state-backed threat actors was noted by the UN to have reached a record-high last year.