A Russian cyber security firm, Kaspersky in a report has claimed that North Korea’s hacking operations has expanded to Nigeria.

The cyber security firm said hackers backed by North Korea are targeting financial institutions in 18 countries, including Nigeria.

According to CNN, some security experts believe North Korea was spending the funds on its nuclear weapon 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.”

Kaspersky had traced hackers to North Korea after detecting mistake from a hacker who connected from North Korea, the United Press International.

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.