South Korean Police: North Korea May Have Stolen A Lot Of Classified Data On Laser Weapons

South Korean police are investigating whether a North Korean hacker group obtained information on defense technology, including air defense lasers, a Seoul police official said Wednesday local time. The organization is accused of allegedly stealing data from 14 entities.
North Korean hackers may have allegedly stolen classified information on a new laser weapon system, as well as key South Korean defense secrets. North Korean hackers allegedly obtained a large amount of data from South Korean defense and research companies.
Jeong Jin-ho, head of the Seoul Police Department's investigation team, told Reuters that the investigation is being conducted in conjunction with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to determine the scope and extent of the data obtained by the organization called Andariel.
In 2019, the U.S. Department of the Treasury classified Andariel as a North Korean government-sponsored hacker group focused on conducting malicious cyber operations against foreign businesses, government agencies, and the defense industry. It set up a proxy server in an area of Pyongyang, the North Korean capital.
Local media reported this week that the stolen data included key South Korean defense secrets. An earlier police statement said the targeted entities included South Korean defense companies, research institutes and pharmaceutical companies. The hackers allegedly stole about 250 documents, equivalent to 1.2 Tb of information and data.
From December last year to March this year, a proxy server set up by the organization in an area of Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, was accessed 83 times, police said. The server was used to access the websites of the companies and institutions, and the organization used a hosting service company in South Korea to rent servers from unidentified customers.
The organization also extorted 470 million won ($357,866) worth of bitcoins from three South Korean and foreign companies through ransomware attacks, police said.