Bluenoroff is Kaspersky's name for a financially motivated unit within the broader Lazarus formation. Kaspersky introduced the designation publicly in 2017 while documenting bank intrusions connected to the 2016 Bangladesh Central Bank theft and other attacks on financial institutions and SWIFT-connected systems. The group used watering holes, backdoors, compromised infrastructure, and malware tailored to banking environments, with activity spanning multiple countries. By 2022, Kaspersky described a shift from banks and SWIFT servers toward cryptocurrency businesses as the group's principal source of illicit income. Operators created convincing cryptocurrency software companies and applications, delivered backdoored updates, and used malicious documents and social engineering to abuse trust. The reporting portrays Bluenoroff as able to draw on the larger formation's malware, exploits, and infrastructure while maintaining a distinct financial objective.
AkBank
#AkBank • 2016-12
🇹🇷 Türkiye
Group-IB's 2018 financial-sector threat reporting lists AkBank in Turkey as a December 2016 SWIFT theft attributed to Lazarus, with the loss shown as $4 million. The incident appears in the report's timeline of SWIFT and local interbank transfer attacks, where Lazarus is described as preparing cash-out schemes and targeting banks across multiple regions.
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First seen: 2017-04 •
Last seen: 2026-07