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North Korean Hackers have stolen billions of dollars by breaking into cryptocurrency exchanges and creating fake identities to get remote tech jobs at foreign companies, according to an international report on North Korea’s cyber capabilities.
officer inside Pyongyang The authors of the 138-page report found that covert work was done to finance nuclear weapons research and development. The review was published by the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team, a group that includes the US and 10 allies and was established last year to observe North Korea’s compliance with UN sanctions.
North Korea has also used cryptocurrencies to launder money and make military purchases to avoid international sanctions related to its nuclear program, the report said. It details how hackers working for North Korea have targeted foreign businesses and organizations with malware designed to disrupt networks and steal sensitive data.
Despite its small size and isolation, North Korea has invested heavily in offensive cyber capabilities and now rivals China And Russia When it comes to the sophistication and capabilities of its hackers, it poses a significant threat to foreign governments, businesses and individuals, investigators concluded.
Unlike China, Russia and iranNorth Korea has focused more on its cyber capabilities to fund its government, using cyberattacks and fake workers to steal and defraud companies and organizations elsewhere in the world.
With the assistance of Russia and China’s allies, North Korea’s cyber actions “are directly linked to the destruction of physical computer equipment, endangerment of human lives, damage to property and assets of private citizens, and funding for the DPRK’s illegal weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs,” the report said, using the acronym of North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
The monitoring group is composed of the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Korea and the United Kingdom. It was created last year after Russia vetoed a resolution directing a UN Security Council panel of experts to monitor Pyongyang’s activities. The team’s first report, released in May, looked at North Korea’s military support for Russia.
Earlier this year, hackers linked to North Korea carried out one of the largest crypto heists ever, stealing $1.5 billion worth of Ethereum from Bybit. The FBI later linked the theft to a group of hackers working for the North Korean intelligence service.
Federal officials have also alleged that thousands of IT workers employed by American companies were actually North Koreans, using fake identities for remote work. The workers gained access to internal systems and sent their wages back to the North Korean government. In some cases, workers had multiple remote jobs at the same time.
A message left with North Korea’s mission to the United Nations was not immediately returned Wednesday.