
North Korean hacking exercise ceases after regulators implement KYC: Report
In keeping with a brand new report published by South Korea’s Nationwide Intelligence Service (NIS), North Korean hackers have stolen greater than 800 billion Korean gained ($620 million) price of cryptocurrencies from decentralized finance, or DeFi, platforms this 12 months. The company additionally revealed it blocked a every day common of 1.18 million assaults perpetrated by nationwide and worldwide hacking organizations in November.
Nevertheless, a NIS spokesperson revealed through native information outlet Kyunghyang Shinmun that all the $620 million stolen by North Korean hackers by DeFi exploits occurred abroad, including:
“In Korea, digital asset transactions have been switched to real-name transactions and safety has been strengthened, so there isn’t any harm.”
In 2021, South Korea carried out new Know Your Buyer cryptocurrency buying and selling guidelines requiring purchasers to create a real-name account with the identical financial institution as their cryptocurrency alternate to deposit or withdraw funds. Each the financial institution and the alternate are then required to confirm the consumer’s identification. As well as, exchanges should get hold of a license from the Monetary Providers Fee earlier than commencing operations.
North Korean hacker syndicates, akin to Lazarus Group, have been linked to quite a few high-profile DeFi breaches this 12 months, together with the $100 million Harmony attack. Specialists mentioned that such assaults are a method of producing overseas forex reserves within the face of strict industrial sanctions imposed by the worldwide neighborhood. The NIS additionally warned that North Korean cyberattacks would intensify subsequent 12 months:
“It’s mandatory to investigate assaults as carefully as defenses. As a result of one hacker group has all of the assault data and doesn’t neglect it. It’s mandatory to assemble data associated to malicious code scattered by varied attackers to seek out significant insights.”