North Korea stole more bitcoin assets in 2022 than in any previous year and targeted the networks of foreign aerospace and defence industries, according to a research that is presently confidential but was reviewed by Reuters news agency. The UN report, which was reviewed by Reuters, provides the basis for these claims.
Independent sanctions monitors reported to a committee of the United Nations Security Council that “[North Korea] used increasingly sophisticated cyber techniques both to gain access to digital networks involved in cyber finance and to steal information of potential value, including information related to its weapons programmes.”
North Korea has been accused by the monitors of using cyberattacks to help finance its nuclear and missile programmes.
A bigger value of bitcoin assets were stolen by DPRK [North Korea] agents in 2022 than in any previous year,” the monitors concluded, citing data from UN member states and cybersecurity businesses. On Friday, the report was given to the 15-person Council committee in charge of North Korea sanctions.
There have been previous claims that North Korea was involved in hacking or other cyberattacks, but Pyongyang has always denied these allegations.
South Korean sanctions watchers estimate that North Korean hackers will steal $630 million worth of virtual assets in 2022, while a cybersecurity group estimates that North Korean cybercrime will provide bitcoin worth more than $1 billion.
“the fluctuation in USD value of bitcoin in recent months is likely to have affected these data,” as stated by the United Nations. Nonetheless, both numbers show that the DPRK stole more cryptocurrency in 2022 than ever before.
Similarly, last week, a blockchain analytics firm in the United States reached the same conclusion.
“the techniques utilised by cyberthreat actors have become more sophisticated,” the UN study claims, making it harder to recover stolen assets.
