{"id":80051,"date":"2023-06-12T11:44:04","date_gmt":"2023-06-12T08:44:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=80051"},"modified":"2025-09-11T14:31:31","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T11:31:31","slug":"north-korea-earmarked-half-of-the-3-billion-stolen-in-crypto-hacks-for-its-nuclear-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/north-korea-earmarked-half-of-the-3-billion-stolen-in-crypto-hacks-for-its-nuclear-program\/","title":{"rendered":"North Korea earmarked half of the $3 billion stolen in crypto hacks for its nuclear program"},"content":{"rendered":"

The crypto industry suffered $3 billion in losses from hacks linked to Pyongyang. Half of that sum went to financing a ballistic missile program, writes The Wall Street Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Cybercriminals employed various schemes, including social engineering.<\/p>\n

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One of the victims was Sky Mavis, known for the game Axie Infinity<\/a>. On March 23, 2022, as a result of the attack on the sidechain, the project lost user crypto assets worth about $625 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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A software engineer working at the startup, reached via LinkedIn, received an offer from a recruiter to discuss his career prospects. During the interview he was asked to view a document that acted as a Trojan horse and allowed hackers to access the company’s systems. As a result, the theft left the project on the brink of closure.<\/p>\n

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The incident drew the attention of the White House.<\/p>\n

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\\”This has prompted us to focus all efforts on countering this activity\\”<\/em>, Anne Neuberger, Deputy National Security Advisor for Cybersecurity and Emerging Technologies, said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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According to the official, Pyongyang finances<\/a> roughly half of the missile program from proceeds of cyber operations. Previously, that share did not exceed a third.<\/p>\n

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US authorities say that for these purposes North Korea has formed a ‘shadow’ army of thousands of IT specialists in countries around the world, who can earn up to $300,000 a year.<\/p>\n

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TRM Labs analyst Nick Carlson said it all began with ‘piratical forays’\u2014infecting computers of various government agencies and organisations with ransom demands.<\/p>\n

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Subsequently, the hackers sharpened their skills and moved on<\/a> to larger and more sophisticated operations, such as the Bangladesh Bank’s $81 million theft in a bid to seize $1 billion, which was thwarted by specialists at the FRB<\/span> of New York.<\/p>\n

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Since 2018, North Korean actors have focused on the crypto industry.<\/p>\n

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\\’From the outset they were among the most \\”advanced\\” users of digital assets\\’,<\/em> said Erin Plante, Chainalysis’s Vice President of Investigations.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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According to Sky Mavis CFO Alexander Larsen, the ‘arms race’ with North Korean hackers has only begun.<\/p>\n

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According to the UN, in 2022 North Korean hackers stole a record amount of cryptocurrency<\/a> and targeted networks of foreign aerospace and defence companies.<\/p>\n

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South Korea estimates the damage at $630 million, while cybersecurity specialists put it at more than $1 billion. Meanwhile, Chainalysis analysts say about $1.7 billion in cryptocurrency proceeds from the cyberattacks.<\/p>\n

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The UN has repeatedly warned<\/a> that North Korea continues to develop its nuclear program, with money from attacks on Bitcoin exchanges becoming a key funding source. In 2019, UN sanctions monitors reported that North Korea had obtained around $2 billion for these purposes over several years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The crypto industry suffered $3 billion in losses from hacks linked to Pyongyang; half of that funded a ballistic missile program, The Wall Street Journal reports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":80052,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[44,1202],"class_list":["post-80051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-cybercrime","tag-north-korea-dprk"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"16","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80051"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80053,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80051\/revisions\/80053"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}