North Korean Hackers Stole US$721 Million In Cryptocurrency From Japan

Tokyo: Hacker groups affiliated with North Korea have stolen $721 million of cryptocurrency assets from Japan since 2017. According to the reports, the amount equals 30% of such losses globally.

On Saturday, seven Finance Ministers and central bank governors said, “they support measures to counter growing threats from illicit activities by state actors such as theft of crypto-assets.”

According to Japan’s External Trade Organization, North Korean Hackers’ $721 million from Japan is 8.8 times greater than North Korea’s export value in 2021.

According to the sources, North Korea utilizes blockchain technology and cyber attacks to target Japanese cryptocurrency assets. Hackers groups associated with North Korea have stolen $721 million from Japan. The group has been working for a long time to steal cryptocurrency and use it for their wars and attacks.

As Cybercrime rate has increased a lot as the technology advancements are growing across the world. In contrast, crypto-jacking is a cybercrime where a hijacker secretly uses a victim’s computing power to generate cryptocurrency.

This happens when a victim unwillingly installs programs with malicious scripts, which permits the cyber attackers to access their computers or other devices.
Business, whose virtual currency was transferred to digital wallets used by Lazarus Group, a hackers group from North Korea. This is the first instance where regional and national breakdowns of the financial losses caused by North Korean Hackers have been made.

After this, international bodies have become very conscious of the threat emanating from North Korea. According to the report released on April 5 by a U.N. security council panel of experts, North Korea stole around $600 million to $1 billion in cryptocurrency in 2022.

In addition, hacking and ransomware are the two main categories of cyber attacks used by North Korea. At the same time, most of the hacking discovered by Elliptic’s analysis involved stealing directly from North Korea.

North Korea is believed to be concentrating on direct attacks on exchanges, as one successful hack can bring in significant cryptocurrency assets. Though, it is difficult to predict which ransomware attack will be successful.

However, it has been noted that the hackers have targeted Japan and Vietnam, where cryptocurrency markets have tremendous growth. It has been expected that North Korean Hackers have broken into three cryptocurrency exchanges in Japan between 2018 and 2021.

In 2014, it became apparent that the group ties with North Korea were engaged in large-scale activities. These organizations steal information on defense, healthcare, and other industries and conduct cyber attacks.

According to cyber security experts, “the technology of the programs they use is higher than that of attack groups in other countries.”
Alas, if the stolen cryptocurrency is used for military purposes, this will cause a security threat. Japan has strengthened its security by modifying its payment services.

However, Japan is changing its financial system by bringing modified versions of digital currency, such as Decentralised Finance (DeFi), in which transactions will take place through blockchain.

Hiroki Iwai, president of Tokyo-based cyber consultancy Sight, stated, “we need to share threat information, such as attack routes and malware that exploit among the public and private sector and industry associations in each country to raise the level of defense capabilities of each industry including the financial sector.”

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