‘North Korea hacking banks in Nigeria, 17 others to fund nuclear programme’

North Korea’s hacking operations has expanded to more countries including Nigeria , a report by Russian cyber security firm Kaspersky has claimed .
The cyber security firm said hackers backed by North Korea are targeting financial institutions in 18 countries, including Nigeria .
According to a report on the hacking claims by CNN, two international security experts believe North Korea was likely spending the stolen funds were on its nuclear weapons programme .
“ Banks and security researchers have previously identified four similar cyber- heists attempted on financial institutions in Bangladesh , Ecuador, the Philippines and Vietnam ,” it read in part .
“ But researchers at Kaspersky now say the same hacking operation — known as “ Lazarus” — also attacked financial institutions in Costa Rica , Ethiopia, Gabon , India , Indonesia, Iraq, Kenya , Malaysia , Nigeria , Poland , Taiwan , Thailand , and Uruguay . ”
Hackers were traced to North Korea after Kaspersky detected a mistake , and a hacker from a group operation known as “ Lazarus” connected from North Korea , the United Press International also reported on Tuesday .
According to the report, the hackers had previously routed their attacks from computer services in France, South Korea and Taiwan , a move which made it difficult for security experts to identify the origin of the breaches .
It added that Lazarus began to focus on banks late 2015, just before North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test then began to test- launch dozens of ballistic missiles in 2016.