Seoul:
North Korea has stolen more than $300 million worth of cryptocurrencies via cyberattacks in current months to help its banned nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, a confidential UN report stated.
Compiled by a panel of professionals monitoring sanctions on Pyongyang, the report stated the country’s “total theft of virtual assets from 2019 to November 2020 is valued at approximately $316.4 million”, citing a UN member state.
Financial institutions and exchanges have been hacked to produce income for Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile improvement, stated the report, which was noticed by AFP.
The vast majority of the proceeds came from two thefts late final year.
The North is identified to operate an army of thousands of effectively-educated hackers who have attacked firms, institutions and researchers in South Korea and elsewhere.
It has also been accused of exploiting its cyber capabilities for monetary get.
The North is below a number of sets of international sanctions more than its banned nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes, which have produced fast progress below leader Kim Jong Un.
A summit in between Kim and then-US president Donald Trump in Hanoi in February 2019 broke down more than sanctions relief and what Pyongyang would be prepared to give up in return.
Nuclear talks have been stalled ever considering that, though the North showed off many new missiles at military parades in October and final month, when Kim pledged to strengthen his nuclear arsenal.
The UN panel stated it was investigating a September 2020 hack against a cryptocurrency exchange that resulted in $281 million worth of cryptocurrencies becoming stolen.
A second cyberattack siphoned off $23 million a month later.
“Preliminary analysis, based on the attack vectors and subsequent efforts to launder the illicit proceeds strongly suggests links to the DPRK,” the report stated, utilizing the initials for the North’s official name.
Pyongyang’s cyberwarfare skills initial came to international prominence in 2014 when it was accused of hacking into Sony Pictures Entertainment as revenge for “The Interview”, a satirical film that mocked leader Kim.
The attack resulted in the posting of many unreleased motion pictures as effectively as a vast trove of confidential documents on-line.
The North is also blamed for a enormous, $81 million cyber-heist from the Bangladesh Central Bank, as effectively as the theft of $60 million from Taiwan’s Far Eastern International Bank.
The North’s hackers have allegedly stepped up campaigns to raise funds by attacking cryptocurrency exchanges as the worth of bitcoin and other cybercurrencies soared.
They have been blamed for the 2017 WannaCry international ransomware cyberattack, which infected some 300,000 computer systems in 150 nations encrypting user files and demanding hundreds of dollars from their owners for the keys to get them back.
Pyongyang has denied the accusations, saying it has “nothing to do with cyber-attacks”.
(This story has not been edited by TheSpuzz employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)