{"id":87807,"date":"2023-12-04T10:57:44","date_gmt":"2023-12-04T08:57:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=87807"},"modified":"2025-09-13T14:11:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T11:11:15","slug":"report-north-korean-hackers-stole-3-billion-in-cryptocurrency-over-six-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/report-north-korean-hackers-stole-3-billion-in-cryptocurrency-over-six-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: North Korean hackers stole $3 billion in cryptocurrency over six years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Since 2017, North Korean hackers have stolen an estimated $3 billion in digital assets, with $1.7 billion attributed to the most recent year. Analysts at Recorded Future estimate.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Since 2017, North Korea has significantly increased its focus on the cryptocurrency industry, stealing an estimated $3 billion worth of cryptocurrency. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/cES9gq2AK3\">pic.twitter.com\/cES9gq2AK3<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Recorded Future (@RecordedFuture) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RecordedFuture\/status\/1730217724091982058?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 30, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>In 2022, the hackers&#8217; takings were 9.3 times larger than the country&#8217;s exports of $182 million.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><em>The amount is equivalent to about 5% of North Korea&#8217;s economy or 45% of its military budget,<\/em> analysts calculated.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>According to the report, the hackers initially targeted the South before expanding their reach to the rest of the world. Support from local authorities has led to a significant expansion of illicit activity.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><em>State attention allows the attackers to scale their operations beyond what is possible for traditional cybercriminals,<\/em> the report says.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Analysts say such activity risks any current player in the industry becoming a target of North Korean hackers, and allows the regime to continue operating and financing itself while under international sanctions.<\/p>\n<p>On November 29, <span data-descr=\"U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control\" class=\"old_tooltip\">OFAC<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/bitcoin-mixer-sinbad-io-sanctioned-by-the-united-states-after-server-seizures\">placed<\/a> Sinbad.io on the sanctions list for laundering assets of the North Korean Lazarus group.<\/p>\n<p>As noted, the protocol became the <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/car-theft-via-usb-cable-record-breaking-ddos-attack-and-other-cybersecurity-events\">primary mixer<\/a> for Lazarus after the <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/blender-io-mixer-sanctioned-by-the-united-states\">Blender<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/what-is-the-tornado-cash-mixer-and-why-was-it-sanctioned\">Tornado Cash<\/a> were blocked.<\/p>\n<p>The hackers themselves have been under U.S. sanctions since September 2019.<\/p>\n<p>In April 2023, the U.S. Treasury identified <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/password-cracker-built-from-30-gpus-android-user-tracking-and-other-cybersecurity-events\">three over-the-counter traders<\/a> who conducted cryptocurrency deals worth tens of millions of dollars for Lazarus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since 2017, North Korean hackers have stolen an estimated $3 billion in digital assets, with $1.7 billion attributed to the most recent year. Analysts at Recorded Future estimate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":87808,"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":[44,1202,1252],"class_list":["post-87807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-cybercrime","tag-north-korea-dprk","tag-reports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"24","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87807","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=87807"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87809,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87807\/revisions\/87809"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}