North Korean hackers stole nearly $400 million worth of cryptocurrency through cyberattack
Blockchain data platform Chainalysis said on Thursday that North Korean hackers stole nearly $400 million worth of cryptocurrency through a cyberattack on a digital currency outlet last year.
Pyongyang is under several international sanctions over its nuclear bomb and ballistic missile development, but analysts say the North has built up its cyber capabilities with an army of thousands of well-trained hackers who fund the state’s weapons programs. To get finances.
According to Chainalysis, in 2021, hackers carried out seven attacks on crypto platforms, extracting assets from “‘hot’ wallets connected to the Internet” and transferring them to North Korean controlled accounts.
“Once North Korea secured custody of the funds, they began a careful laundering process to cover up and cash out,” Chainalysis said in a report published on its website.
“These complex tactics and techniques have led many security researchers to characterize cyber actors as advanced persistent threats to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).
The report highlighted the rise of the Lazarus Group, which gained notoriety in 2014 when Sony Pictures Entertainment was accused of hacking in exchange for “The Interview”, a satirical film that mocked leader Kim Jong Un.
“Since 2018, the group has stolen and laundered massive amounts of virtual currencies each year, typically over $200 million.”
Hackers also targeted a wide variety of cryptocurrencies, with bitcoin, the world’s largest digital currency, accounting for only a quarter of stolen assets.
“The increasing diversity of stolen cryptocurrencies has inevitably increased the complexity of the DPRK’s cryptocurrency laundering operations,” Chainalysis said.
North Korea’s cyber-programme dates back to at least the mid-1990s, but has since grown into a 6,000-strong cyber warfare unit, known as Bureau 121, that serves Belarus, China, India, Malaysia and Russia. Including many countries. A 2020 US military report.
The United States this week imposed new sanctions on North Korea after Pyongyang called it hypersonic missile tests on January 5 and 11.
On Friday, South Korean and Japanese officials said North Korea fired an unidentified projectile eastward in its third suspected weapons test in a week.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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