Park Jin-Hyok (), is a North Korean programmer and

hacker A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who uses their technical knowledge to achieve a goal or overcome an obstacle, within a computerized system by non-standard means. Though the term ''hacker'' has become associated in popu ...

. He is best known for his alleged involvement in some of the costliest computer intrusions in history. Park is on the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

's wanted list. North Korea denies his existence.

Life and career

Early life

Park attended the

Kim Chaek University of Technology Kim Chaek University of Technology is a university in North Korea, on the banks of the Taedong River in Pyongyang. It is named after General Kim Chaek. The university's programs in nuclear reactors, nuclear electronics, nuclear fuel and nuclear ...

Pyongyang Pyongyang (, , ) is the capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is known as the "Capital of the Revolution". Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. According to the 2008 populat ...

. He has traveled to China in the past and conducted IT work for the North Korean company "Chosun Expo" in addition to activities conducted on behalf of North Korea's Reconnaissance General Bureau.

Lazarus group and computer hacking

Cartel de la orden de captura de Park Jin Hyok

Park is a member of a North Korea's government-funded hacking team known as “ Lazarus Group (or APT 38)” and worked for Chosun Expo Joint Venture (aka Korea Expo Joint Venture), a

North Korean government In the North Korean government, the Cabinet is the administrative and executive body. The North Korean government consists of three branches: administrative, legislative, and judicial. However, they are not independent of each other, but al ...

front company, to support the North Korean government’s malicious cyber actions. Chosun is affiliated with Lab 110, a component of North Korea's military intelligence. Expo Joint Venture had offices in China (PRC) and North Korea.

Sony Pictures hack

In November 2014, the conspirators launched a destructive attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment in retaliation for the movie ''

The Interview ''The Interview'' is a 2014 satirical alternate history action-comedy film co-produced and directed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg in their second directorial work, following ''This Is the End'' (2013). The screenplay was written by Dan Ste ...

'', a political action comedy film that depicted the assassination of the DPRK’s leader by a CIA spy. North Korea denied allegations of hacking.

WannaCry ransomware attack

The

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United Stat ...

has charged Park and other members of

Lazarus group Lazarus Group (also known by other monikers such as Guardians of Peace or Whois Team ) is a cybercrime group made up of an unknown number of individuals run by the government of North Korea. While not much is known about the Lazarus Group, resea ...

for the

WannaCry ransomware attack The WannaCry ransomware attack was a worldwide cyberattack in May 2017 by the WannaCry ransomware cryptoworm, which targeted computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system by encrypting data and demanding ransom payments in the Bitco ...

of 2017, a computer virus that used encryption to encrypt file on affected systems and affected many businesses throughout the world, including United Kingdom’s

NHS The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

, where nonfunctional computer systems led to thousands of appointments being canceled.

References