Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1342444
NEWS 9 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 21 FEBRUARY 2021 facebook .com/ Presidentof Malta Is-Sibt, 27 ta' Frar fid-9.30am IL-PALAZZ VERDALA Biex tirriserva post fis-sala, ikteb fuq konferenzanazzjonali@gov.mt Minħabba l-pandemija l-postijiet huma limitati; il-konferenza se tintwera wkoll dirett fuq Facebook. MATTHEW VELLA THE Nigerian social media in- fluencer behind the multi-mil- lion cyberattack on Bank of Valletta in February 2019, was part of a "North Korean-perpe- trated cyber-enabled heist from a Maltese bank" according to the United States Department of Justice. Ramoni Igbalode Abbas, aka "Hushpuppi", had amassed 2.4 million followers on Instagram flaunting his luxury lifestyle, when he was arrested in 2020 in Dubai, accused of having con- spired to "launder funds intend- ed to be stolen through fraud- ulent wire transfers of some €13 million in BOV cash sent to bank accounts around the world in February 2019. On Wednesday, the Justice Department filed charges on a national security cyber investi- gation that accused operatives working for the government of the Democratic People's Re- public of Korea (DPRK). The hacking indictment filed in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles alleges that Jon Chang Hyok, 31; Kim Il, 27; and Park Jin Hyok, 36, were members of units of the Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB), a mil- itary intelligence agency of the DPRK, which engaged in crim- inal hacking. They are accused of the No- vember 2014 hack-and-dump targeting Sony Pictures Enter- tainment over the film 'The In- terview' which parodied dicta- tor Kim Jong Un; and attempts from 2015 through 2019 to steal more than $1.2 billion from banks in Vietnam, Bangladesh, Taiwan, Mexico, Malta, and Af- rica by hacking the banks' net- works and sending fraudulent SWIFT messages. Abbas's alleged role was to find bank accounts that could accept millions of dollars in stolen cash without raising red flags. "North Korea's operatives, using keyboards rather than guns, stealing digital wallets of cryptocurrency instead of sacks of cash, are the world's lead- ing bank robbers," said Assis- tant Attorney General John C. Demers of the Justice Depart- ment's National Security Divi- sion. These North Korean military hacking units are known by multiple names in the cyber- security community, including Lazarus Group and Advanced Persistent Threat 38 (APT38). The hackers are also accused of cyber-enabled thefts through ATM cash-out schemes, creat- ing the destructive WannaCry 2.0 ransomware in May 2017, and malicious cryptocurrency applications which would pro- vide the North Korean hackers a backdoor into the victims' computers. Sony hackers were behind BOV heist Living for the 'gram: Ramoni Abbas was the front for DPRK operatives to provide legitimate accounts for the hackers