North Korea’s hacker army carried out at least seven attacks on cryptocurrency platforms in 2021, threatening global players and yielding nearly $400 million worth of digital assets, a report said.
That’s a 40% increase from a year ago, a report released Thursday by blockchain research firm Chainalysis said, adding that the attacks primarily targeted investment firms and centralized exchanges.
“These behaviors, together, paint a portrait of a nation that largely supports cryptocurrency-enabled crime,” it said.
Chainalysis’s findings underscore leader Kim Jong Un’s reliance on state-backed hackers. The US and the UN Security Council have said the country’s cybercrimes help finance North Korea’s nuclear weapons program and prop up an economy hit by global sanctions on nuclear bombs and long-range missile tests.
The amount reported by the research group amounts to about 1.5% of North Korea’s economy in 2020 and is likely to exceed 10% of its annual military budget. The US Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in an unclassified report in 2021 that North Korea’s money from cybercrimes helps “government priorities, such as its nuclear and missile programs”.
Chainalysis said North Korea used phishing lures, code exploits, malware and advanced social engineering to siphon the funds. “Once North Korea obtained custody of the funds, they began a careful laundering process to cover up and cash out.”
The report states that North Korea is stealing a variety of cryptocurrencies. This has increased the complexity of its money-laundering operations, which have become more cautious with each passing year.
Reports come as North Korea presses on sanctions, said in a Friday dispatch from its State Department, adding that if the US tries to apply more economic pressure, it will give a “strong and definite response”.
After North Korea conducted two tests this month of a new hypersonic missile system designed to use high speed and maneuverability to evade American interceptors, the US Treasury Department designated five North Koreans living overseas as did – one in Russia and four in China – for aid. The country’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.
Kim has shown little interest in calls for the US to return to the nuclear disarmament talks, which have been stalled for nearly three years. The Biden administration has indicated it may offer financial rewards in exchange for verifiable disarmament steps.
The US and the United Nations have said the North Korean regime has tried to replenish its coffers through two main methods of dodging sanctions. The first is cybercrime. The second is ship-to-ship transfer of goods such as coal: a North Korean ship will transfer its cargo to another ship, or the other way around, and both ships generally try to hide their identities.
Currently, North Korea’s cyber warfare guidance unit, also known as Bureau 121, has more than 6,000 members, according to assessments by US and South Korean declassified defense reports.
The US government is going against alleged North Korean agents, filing criminal complaints against those who, it says, illegally obtained confidential data from Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. in 2014 and 81 from Bangladesh’s central bank in 2016. Million dollars stolen. North Korea has denied any involvement in those hacks.
This story has been published without modification in text from a wire agency feed. Only the title has been changed.
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