🌅 North Korean Crypto Heists

SOURCE

Chainalysis

WHAT TO KNOW

• North Korea is the world’s most prolific cryptocurrency hacker, swiping $6 out of every $10 lost by the crypto industry last year and a total of more than $6 billion since the mid-2010s. South Korean intelligence suggests North Korea commands a military-like unit of 8,400 hackers (up from 6,800 in 2022), who use various techniques to access networks and move illicit funds, often waiting months or years before exploiting a single mistake in a company’s digital security (hackers have even gone so far as to get hired by companies they’re targeting).

WHY IT MATTERS

• Pyongyang's greatest heist came in February, when its hackers stole $1.5 billion from the Dubai-based exchange Bybit in the largest cryptocurrency theft in history (Pyongyang is also suspected to be responsible for the previous largest-ever crypto heist). North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un uses the stolen cryptocurrency to fund his nuclear program and prop-up the country’s struggling economy.

CONNECT THE DOTS

• North Korea’s crypto hacks are often tied back to the Lazarus Group, which authorities believe has stolen at least $3.4 billion in cryptocurrencies since its emergence in 2007. U.S. authorities also believe North Korea is responsible for digital thefts outside of crypto, including the high-profile email hack of Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2014 (which destroyed 70% of the company's laptops and computers) and the 2016 heist of $81 million from Bangladesh’s central bank.