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.
Punjab National Bank
#PunjabNational • 2018-02
🇮🇳 India
Group-IB listed Punjab National Bank in India among Lazarus-attributed SWIFT incidents from early 2018 in its financial-sector threat reporting. The report places the case in a broader North Korea-linked pattern of prepared SWIFT cash-out operations against banks, alongside City Union Bank, Banco de Chile, Cosmos Bank, Bank of Valletta, and other financial institutions.
-
2
Related Reports
-
1
Affected Countries
-
102
Months Since
Related Actors
First seen: 2017-04 •
Last seen: 2026-07