Washington, US September 7 :
According to the US State Department, the US, Japan, and South Korea met in Seoul to deliberate ways to combat North Korea's cyber threats. During the third meeting of the Trilateral Diplomatic Working Group, representatives from the three nations assessed the "substantial progress" achieved in strengthening trilateral cooperation to thwart Pyongyang's capacity to produce and conceal funds via hostile cyber operations.

Following a warning from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of groups of North Korean hackers actively trying to breach cryptocurrency platforms and businesses using malware in order to steal funds, the meeting took place.

U.S. Deputy Special Representative for North Korea Seth Bailey, Korean Peninsula policy director general at Seoul's foreign ministry Lee Jun-il, and Japanese ambassador Naoki Kumagai, who is responsible for cyber policy, presided over the meeting.

Members of the working group came from approximately twenty different government entities in the United States, South Korea, and Japan.

"Through the working group, the United States, the Republic of Korea, and Japan will continue to coordinate on a wide range of trilateral actions, underscoring the historic cooperation established at the Camp David Summit, including efforts to prevent DPRK cryptocurrency heists, disrupt IT worker networks, engage partners on the DPRK cyber threat, and develop trilateral capacity building assistance efforts," according to the State Department.

"The group reviewed the substantial progress made in deepening trilateral collaboration to disrupt the DPRK's ability to generate and launder revenue through malicious cyber activity, IT workers, and third-party facilitators, which it uses to fund its unlawful WMD (weapons of mass destruction) and ballistic missile programs," according to the report.

According to the US State Department, the three parties also deliberated how to handle autonomous sanctions and how important it is for private sector initiatives to tackle North Korea's cyber problems.

Teams of North Korean hackers have been actively trying to breach cryptocurrency platforms and organizations using malware in order to steal funds, according to a warning given earlier this week by the FBI.

Companies associated with bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), decentralised finance (DeFi) systems, and crypto exchanges are the principal targets, according to the FBI.

The FBI has described North Korean social engineering tactics as intricate and clever, frequently taking advantage of victims' high levels of technological knowledge.

North Korea is determined to hack networks tied to cryptocurrency assets, and this hostile behavior is both widespread and persistent, leaving even those well-versed in cybersecurity susceptible, according to the FBI.

The Federal Bureau of Investigations claims that these con artists look into prospective victims' lives by perusing their social media and professional networking accounts.

Their goal is to use the victim's background, abilities, and interests as building blocks for a convincing, personalized scenario. It went on to say that these methods frequently involve reasonable and appealing opportunities, such as job offers, corporate investments, or others.

US, Japan, and South Korea Officials Discuss Strategies to Counter North Korean Cyber Threats