UN experts say North Korea continues to steal hundreds of millions of pounds from financial institutions and cryptocurrency firms, with the dictatorship using the illicit money to fund its nuclear and missile programmes.
The panel of experts said that, according to an unnamed government, North Korean “cyber-actors stole more than 50 million dollars (£37 million) between 2020 and mid-2021 from at least three cryptocurrency exchanges in North America, Europe and Asia, probably reflecting a shift to diversify its cybercrime operations”.
In the report’s section on cyber activities, obtained by the Associated Press, experts said that an unidentified cybersecurity firm reported that in 2021 the North’s “cyber-actors stole a total of 400 million dollars worth of cryptocurrency through seven intrusions into cryptocurrency exchanges and investment firms”.
These cyberattacks “made use of phishing lures, code exploits, malware, and advanced social engineering to siphon funds out of these organisations’ internet-connected ‘hot’ wallets into DPRK-controlled addresses”,…
