The 44-year-old individual planted remote access malware on a logistics firm’s systems, with help from employees.

The post Dutch Port Hacker Sentenced to Prison appeared first on SecurityWeek.

Bitcoin Magazine

Former Exchange Employee Sentenced to 4 Years for Selling Military Secrets to North Korea for Bitcoin

A South Korean crypto exchange employee was sentenced to four years in prison for attempting to recruit a military officer to sell classified secrets to North Korea in exchange for Bitcoin, the Supreme Court ruled on December 28. 

The ruling also imposes a four-year ban on the employee from financial sector activities.

Court documents revealed that North Korean hackers paid the exchange staffer $487,000 in Bitcoin to recruit a 30-year-old army captain, who received $33,500 in Bitcoin in return, according to the South Korean media outlet Dailian.

The staffer approached the officer through a Telegram chat, offering cryptocurrency for access to sensitive military data.

The staffer sent a watch-shaped hidden camera and a USB “hacking device” to the captain under hacker instructions. These devices were intended to capture and transmit information from the Korean Joint Command and Control System, a platform used to share intelligence between the U.S. and South Korea. 

Military police intercepted the devices before any breach occurred.

“The defendant must have been aware that he was attempting to uncover military secrets for a country hostile to South Korea,” the judge said. “This crime could have endangered the entire country and was committed for personal financial gain.”

The captain, surnamed Kim, was sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined $35,000 for violating the Military Secrets Protection Act. 

DLNews reporting helped with this article.

North Korea’s crypto exploits 

The U.S. Treasury Department on November 4, sanctioned eight individuals and two entities linked to North Korea’s cybercrime operations, targeting the flow of cryptocurrency stolen by DPRK hackers. 

Over the past three years, North Korea-affiliated cybercriminals have stolen more than $3 billion, primarily in digital assets, using malware, ransomware, and social engineering to attack banks, exchanges, and other platforms. 

The Treasury said the funds help finance Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and missile programs.

Among those sanctioned were bankers Jang Kuk Chol and Ho Jong Son, who managed over $5.3 million in cryptocurrency tied to ransomware attacks and DPRK IT workers abroad. Korea Mangyongdae Computer Technology Corp., which runs overseas IT delegations, and its president U Yong Su, were also targeted, alongside Ryujong Credit Bank in Pyongyang and five DPRK banking representatives in China and Russia for laundering millions in global currencies.

In September 2024, the FBI issued a warning that North Korean hackers were targeting U.S. cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in an attempt to steal digital assets.

According to the agency, the attackers are employing sophisticated social engineering techniques to infiltrate companies linked to these financial products.

This post Former Exchange Employee Sentenced to 4 Years for Selling Military Secrets to North Korea for Bitcoin first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

After being arrested, New Jersey resident John-Michael Musbach pleaded guilty to attempting to hire a hitman from DarkWeb to kill a minor.

According to the information provided, 31-year-old New Jersey resident John-Michael Musbach transferred about $20,000 in BTC to the account of a fraudulent website for hiring killers. He was trying to hire a killer to kill a 14-year-old boy whom he had sexually abused the day before. According to the police department, in the summer of 2015, John-Michael conducted sexual correspondence with a minor (the victim was only 13 years old at the time) using the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) resource.

This could not go unnoticed, so the victim’s parents found out about it and immediately contacted the police. On March 31, 2016, the police arrested Michael, and on October 11, he confessed to having sexual relations with the victim.

On February 9, 2018, Michael was sentenced to 2 years of suspended imprisonment. The case would have been closed, but in 2019, an anonymous informant contacted HSI agents. The anonymous informant reported that in 2016, a user under the nickname agentisai wanted to use the services of a DarkNet site to order the services of a killer.

The anonymous person shared private correspondence from which it became known that in May 2016, agentisai asked the site administration whether a minor could be a target, and received a response that age was not a problem for the order. After receiving a positive response to his request, agentisai transferred 40 bitcoins to the site’s account and placed an order to kill a 14-year-old boy. During the order confirmation, the administrator asked for another $5,000, saying that this way his order would be fulfilled by a more professional killer. After that, agentisai wanted to deactivate his order, but was refused. The site administrator threatened to provide all the information to law enforcement agencies if agentisai did not pay another 22 BTC. For this amount, the administration promised to delete the customer’s account.

The agents reported this information to the Coinbase exchange, as it was the exchange that was used to pay for the murder order. The exchange indicated that this transaction was made from an account registered to John-Michael.

John-Michael was arrested on August 13, 2020, and pleaded guilty on February 2, 2023. U.S. District Judge Joseph H. Rodriguez has scheduled his sentencing for June 13, 2023. Michael faces a 10-year prison sentence.