Home
News
- 1 North Korean hackers are infamous for being involved in the biggest thefts within the crypto industry.
- 2 A report finds most of the funds get directed towards missile and nuclear weapon developments.
The cryptocurrency market emerged over a decade ago, and has ended up accumulating trillions of dollars worth market capitalization. Such a significant amount of capital in a nascent market like crypto lures illicit cyber actors or hackers. Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, crypto firms, investors, etc., remain in constant threat of a cyber attack. Today, like hackers from North Korea, became quite infamous given the sheer amount of money they stole.
In a recent report by The Wall Street Journal, it was noted that a North Korean hackers group has preyed on crypto projects. The hackers came up with unique ideas and tactics to get their job done. There were connections cited in the report between the crypto hacks by the DPRK hackers and the country’s increasing military activities, especially ballistic missiles and nuclear weapon development.
Crypto Funds Half of Military Spendings in North Korea
According to the report, the hacker groups from North Korea stepped into the crypto markets and started illicit activities around 2018. The timing has similarities with the missile launch attempts of the country. In proportion to the attempts, there had also been successful missions. In 2022 alone, there were over 40 such incidents reported.
The crypto hackers group were said to steal more than 3 Billion USD worth cryptocurrencies from illicit activities across the world.
Deputy National Security Adviser for Cyber and Emerging Technology in the President Biden administration, Anne Newberger, stated cryptocurrencies support about half of the currency funding in order to make purchase of components from foreign countries for the North Korean missile program.
Earlier, the percentage of funding from crypto operations was standing at 33%, which now rose to approx 50%.
DPRK Deployed a Whole Shadow Workforce
The United States officials reportedly stated the “rogue state” has created a dedicated shadow workforce. It consists of thousands of workers from various fields like IT workers, government officials, and blockchain developers across Russia, China, Canada, Japan, etc.
The report stated the shadow workforce acts as an intermediary for cybercrime operations in North Korea. Crypto hacks and other cyber activities get carried out by these workers.
One of the most popularly known instances of the Ronin bridge attack was done by the people from the shadow workforce. They targeted an engineer from the creator company Sky Mavis. Disguising as a recruiter on LinkedIn, the engineer was provided to review a document required for the recruitment.
The document had malicious code in it and opened a gateway for North Korean hackers in Sky Mavis systems. They broke into the systems and got away with more than 600 Million USD.
The WSJ report also addressed a growing concern of the hackers belonging to the DPRK becoming more technically sophisticated. The hackers have shown such skills and tactics in their attacks in the past that the US officials and researchers did not see earlier.
Andrew is a blockchain developer who developed his interest in cryptocurrencies while pursuing his post-graduation major in blockchain development. He is a keen observer of details and shares his passion for writing, along with coding. His backend knowledge about blockchain helps him give a unique perspective to his writing skills, and a reliable craft at explaining the concepts such as blockchain programming, languages and token minting. He also frequently shares technical details and performance indicators of ICOs and IDOs.
