UNITED NATIONS: In 2022, North Korea stole more cryptocurrency assets than in other years and focused on the networks of international aerospace and defence firms, a currently confidential United Nations report seen by sources says.
The report, compiled by a U.N. Security Council committee, says, “North Korea used increasingly sophisticated cyber techniques both to gain access to digital networks involved in cyber finance and to steal information of potential value, including about its weapons programs.”
A United Nations Security Council committee received the report from Independent Sanctions Monitors. The monitors have previously charged North Korea with employing cyberattacks to aid in funding its nuclear and missile programmes.
The monitors, citing data from U.N. member states and cybersecurity firms, stated in their report, which was given to the 15-member council’s North Korea sanctions committee on Friday, “A higher value of cryptocurrency assets was stolen by DPRK actors in 2022 than in any previous year.”
South Korea said that hackers with ties to North Korea would steal $630 million of virtual assets in 2022. A cybersecurity company said hackers with ties to North Korea would steal more than $1 billion of cyber currency.
Previously, North Korea has refuted accusations of hacking or any other cyberattacks.
The U.N. report stated that 2022 was a record-breaking year for DPRK (North Korea) virtual asset theft. “The variation in the USD value of cryptocurrency in recent months is likely to have affected these estimates, but both show that 2022 was a record-breaking year for DPRK (North Korea) virtual asset theft,” it added.
Last week, the same conclusion was made by a blockchain analytics company based in the United States.
The U.N. report stated: “The techniques used by cyber threat actors have become more sophisticated, making it more challenging to track stolen funds.”
Diplomats said the report would likely be made public later this month or early next month.
According to the monitors, the Reconnaissance General Bureau, North Korea’s main intelligence agency, controls most 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.
The U.N. sanctions monitors reported in 2019 that North Korea had used widespread and increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks over a number of years to raise an estimated $2 billion for its weapons of mass destruction programmes.
In their most recent annual report, the monitors also noted that Pyongyang continued to manufacture nuclear fissile materials at its facilities and fired at least 73 ballistic missiles, including eight intercontinental ballistic missiles, in 2017. North Korea is ready to do a seventh nuclear test, which is something the U.S. has been saying for a long time.
In April, the United States asserted that North Korean hackers were responsible for losing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency linked to the well-known online game Axie Infinity.
Ronin, a blockchain network letting players move cryptocurrency into and out of games, says that about $615 million of digital currency was stolen on March 20, 2022.
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