North Korean hackers have been raking in billions of dollars by breaking into cryptocurrency exchanges and creating fake identities to land remote tech jobs at companies around the world. A new 138-page international report reveals how Pyongyang’s been using these schemes to fund its nuclear weapons program.
The report came from the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team, a group of 11 countries, including the US, that watches North Korea’s compliance with UN sanctions. They found North Korea’s also been using crypto to launder money and buy military equipment while dodging international sanctions.
Despite being small and isolated, North Korea has invested heavily in offensive cyber capabilities and now rivals China and Russia when it comes to hacker sophistication. What makes them different is they’re mainly focused on stealing money to fund their government rather than espionage like other countries.
Earlier this year, North Korean hackers pulled off one of the biggest crypto heists ever, stealing $1.5 billion worth of Ethereum from the Bybit exchange. The FBI traced that back to North Korea’s intelligence service.
Federal authorities also discovered thousands of IT workers at US companies were actually North Koreans using fake identities to get remote jobs. These workers accessed internal systems and sent their salaries straight back to Pyongyang’s government. Some even juggled multiple remote jobs simultaneously to maximize earnings.
The monitoring team warned that with help from allies in Russia and China, North Korea’s cyber operations directly fund their illegal weapons programs.
Conclusion
North Korea stole billions through cryptocurrency hacks and fake remote tech worker identities, funneling money to the nuclear weapons program, including the $1.5 billion Bybit Ethereum heist.
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