2 mins read North Korean hackers have stolen as much as $1bn, hitting an all-time high, according to a United Nations (UN) report shared by Reuters.
This is the highest value of assets stolen by the country’s infamous cybercriminals on record.
The report was submitted to the UN council on North Korean sanctions and estimates the value of the stolen funds from anything between $630m and $1bn.
The report cites numbers by an intelligence firm which provided the data but has not been named publicly in the media’s reporting.
The report has been able to pinpoint some of the suspects and link the attacks to the country’s main intelligence agency, the Reconnaissance General Bureau.
Several hacking organizations have been conducting the attacks, among which Lazarus Group, Andariel, and Kimsuky.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation also reported a theft from Horizon Bridge recently. The missing funds were estimated at $100m at the time of the attack.
It is believed that North Korea is becoming more aggressive in the pursuit of cryptocurrencies as it uses them to fund its ballistic missile and Weapons of Mass Destruction programs.
The North Korean regime is currently under strict sanctions which has left it little other choice than to pursue cyber attacks on internet infrastructure in a bid to achieve its goals of funding the programs.
The report put forward by the UN, falls short of the report submitted by another intelligence firm – Chainalysis. In its own overview of the market in 2022, the firm said that North Korean hackers had stolen at least $1.76bn in total funds.
Regardless, the North Korean regime is continually associated with cyber attacks on consumers from all over the world.
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