North Korea targeted the networks of multinational aerospace and military corporations and stole more bitcoin assets in 2022 than any previous year, according to a presently secret United Nations study reviewed by Reuters.
Independent sanctions monitors revealed to a U.N. Security Council committee that “(North Korea) employed more sophisticated cyber tactics both to acquire access to digital networks involved in cyber financing, and to steal information of potential value, including to its weapons programs.”
North Korea has been charged by the monitors of employing cyber-attacks to support the funding of its nuclear and missile programs.
According to intelligence from U.N. member states and cyber security firms, “a bigger worth of cryptocurrency assets was taken by DPRK agents in 2022 than in any previous year,” monitors said in their report, which was presented to the 15-member council’s North Korea sanctions committee on Friday.
Prior to this, North Korea has refuted claims of hacking or other cyber-attacks.
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A cybersecurity company calculated that North Korean cybercrime produced digital currencies worth more than $1 billion, while South Korea believed that hackers with North Korean ties stole virtual assets worth $630 million in 2022, according to the sanctions monitors.
Both estimations indicate that 2022 was a record-breaking year for DPRK (North Korea) virtual asset theft, according to the U.N. report. “The volatility in USD value of cryptocurrencies in recent months is likely to have influenced these figures,” it stated.
According to the observers, the Reconnaissance General Bureau, which is North Korea’s main intelligence agency, controls the majority of the cyberattacks. The cybersecurity sector was claimed to have been keeping an eye on these groups, which included the hacker teams known as Lazarus Group, Andariel, and Kimsuky.
Additionally, it stated that HOlyGhOst, a North Korean-affiliated gang, had “extorted ransoms from small- and medium-sized firms in various countries by disseminating ransomware in a widespread, financially driven operation,” according to a cybersecurity firm.
