TL;DR
- A security researcher claims that OPPO is among more than 1,600 organizations across 57 countries affected by a years-long North Korean hacking campaign.
- The attackers reportedly used fake software developer job interviews to trick victims into installing malware that granted access to corporate systems.
- The campaign primarily focused on stealing cryptocurrency, though researchers warn that the hackers gained highly privileged access to hundreds of organizations.
A years-long North Korean hacking campaign has reportedly compromised more than 1,600 organizations across 57 countries worldwide, and Chinese smartphone maker OPPO is among the companies named by the researcher who uncovered the operation.
According to a report from Wired, cybersecurity researcher Vangelis Stykas says he spent nearly two years inside infrastructure used by North Korean hackers, uncovering evidence that hundreds of companies were affected. He claims that 700 to 800 of those organizations suffered “really damaging” intrusions that granted the hackers high-level access to internal systems.
As part of a presentation at the Black Hat security conference, Stykas publicly identified around a dozen organizations he says were impacted, including OPPO, Coinbase, Uniswap Labs, Boston Children’s Hospital, and several government agencies. The researcher says these are largely organizations that responded to his disclosures or fixed the issues.
According to Stykas, the hackers typically targeted software developers with fake, high-paying job offers. Victims were allegedly asked to complete coding tests that secretly installed malware, allowing attackers to steal developer credentials and gain access to corporate networks. Microsoft previously reported on this technique under a campaign known as Contagious Interview.
While the intrusions could have exposed sensitive company data, the researcher says the attackers were primarily interested in accessing cryptocurrency wallets and blockchain infrastructure. However, security experts also warn that maintaining persistent access to corporate systems could also enable future espionage or other attacks.
Wired says multiple organizations named in the report did not respond to requests for comment. This makes it difficult to ascertain what, if any, information may have been compromised at OPPO or whether the reported incident had any impact on users of the company’s smartphones.
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