Cosmos Bank

#CosmosBank • 2018-08

🇮🇳 India

Cosmos Bank suffered an August 2018 financial intrusion combining ATM cash-out and SWIFT abuse, with linked reporting describing compromise of ATM/POS switch infrastructure, malicious ISO 8583 libraries, process injection, a parallel malicious switch, and fraudulent MT103 transfers. Some sources associated the activity with Lazarus or DPRK-linked Hidden Cobra and FASTCash-style indicators, while the Indian investigation cited in the evidence had not confirmed that attribution.

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Bluenoroff

Kaspersky

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.

Lazarus Under The Hood
First seen: 2017-04 • Last seen: 2026-07

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