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After Trump courts Kim, U.S. issues warning on North Korean malware

Days after the historic United States-North Korea summit, the Department of Homeland Security and FBI has warned U.S. industry about a malware variant tied to North Korean government hackers.
President Donald Trump and North Korea leader Kim Jong Un shake hands during their 2018 summit in Singapore. (White House / Dan Scavino / Twitter)

Days after the historic United States-North Korea summit, the Department of Homeland Security and FBI have warned U.S. industry about a malware variant tied to North Korean government hackers.

The DHS-FBI report released Thursday on the malware, dubbed Typeframe, analyzes 11 samples, including infected Windows files and a malicious Microsoft Word document.

“These files have the capability to download and install malware, install proxy and remote access Trojans, connect to command and control servers to receive additional instructions, and modify the victim’s firewall to allow incoming connections,” the report states.

Pyongyang’s hackers have gotten considerably more advanced in recent years, allegedly carrying out brazen attacks on banks around the world. Ahead of the high-profile meeting this week between President Donald Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, North Korean hackers were not letting up their activity, attacking companies in Asia, Europe, and the United States.

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The DHS-FBI report encourages computer users to report any activity related to the malware to authorities and to “give the activity the highest priority for enhanced mitigation.” The report also advises agencies to “enable a personal firewall” on workstations that is “configured to deny unsolicited connection requests.”

A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council declined to comment on whether Trump and Kim discussed cybersecurity during their meeting.

Sean Lyngaas

Written by Sean Lyngaas

Sean Lyngaas is CyberScoop’s Senior Reporter covering the Department of Homeland Security and Congress. He was previously a freelance journalist in West Africa, where he covered everything from a presidential election in Ghana to military mutinies in Ivory Coast for The New York Times. Lyngaas’ reporting also has appeared in The Washington Post, The Economist and the BBC, among other outlets. His investigation of cybersecurity issues in the nuclear sector, backed by a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, won plaudits from industrial security experts. He was previously a reporter with Federal Computer Week and, before that, with Smart Grid Today. Sean earned a B.A. in public policy from Duke University and an M.A. in International Relations from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

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