North Korea is making news as, according to a draft report from the United Nations, the country has stolen around $2 billion in a wave of cyber attacks on cryptocurrency exchanges and financial institutions in an effort to fund military weapons program.
The report was submitted to the Security Council committee this past week by panel that oversees UN sanction issues. This is what is stated in the report, as taken from press releases:
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) cyber actors, many operating under the direction of the Reconnaissance General Bureau, raise money for its WMD (weapons of mass destruction) programmes, with total proceeds to date estimated at up to US$2 billion.
The draft report cites more than 30 occasions on which North Korea targeted crypto exchanges, banks and illegal mining activities in over 16 countries.
The entire operation was conducted in order to circumvent the stricter government regulations and oversight. Techniques included infecting viruses into companies’ computers through cryptojacking malware.