North Korean hackers used Itaewon tragedy for malware: Google

North Korean hackers exploited South Korea’s deadly Halloween crowd crush to target internet users with malware, according to a report by Google’s anti-hacking unit, Qazet.az reports.

The state-backed hackers planted malicious software in Microsoft Office documents disguised to look like a South Korean government report on the Halloween crush, the Threat Analysis Group said in a report released on Wednesday.

The October 29 disaster, which occurred when thousands of Halloween revellers packed into a narrow alleyway in the nightlife district of Itaewon, resulted in the deaths of 158 young people.

Threat Analysis Group said it had traced the activity to a group of North Korean government-backed hackers known as APT37, which has a history of targeting South Korean users, North Korean defectors, policymakers, journalists and human rights activists.

“This incident was widely reported on, and the lure takes advantage of widespread public interest in the accident,” Threat Analysis Group said.

Google said it had reported a related software vulnerability to Microsoft within hours of its discovery on October 31. Microsoft issued a patch to fix the issue on November 8.