Malaysian Central Bank

#MalayBank • 2018-03

🇲🇾 Malaysia

On March 29, 2018, attackers attempted to use fraudulent SWIFT transactions to steal about $390 million from Malaysia’s central bank. Carnegie’s timeline says no funds were stolen and the bank’s payment systems remained unaffected, while UN Panel-linked reporting later treated the case as part of DPRK-affiliated financial-theft activity.

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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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