Altcoin News: Trump Administration Hunts North Korean Hackers
September 16, 2019, by Marko Vidrih on ALTCOIN MAGAZINE
North Korea’s infamous state-sponsored hacking team Lazarus Group, which is responsible for stealing more than $500 million from Bitcoin exchanges around the world, is now being persecuted by the Trump administration.
According to The U.S. Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial, Sigal Mandelker, North Korea has used the cryptocurrency funds stolen by the hacker groups to fund its weapons development:
“Treasury is taking action against North Korean hacking groups that have been perpetrating cyber attacks to support illicit weapon and missile programs. We will continue to enforce existing U.S. and UN sanctions against North Korea and work with the international community to improve cybersecurity of financial networks.”
Cyber-attacks involving the Lazarus group include the WannaCry 2.0 ransomware attack. For each CBS, the average ransom associated with the cyberattack was Bitcoin worth about $300. By May 2017, combined losses from at least 150 countries were estimated at $4 billion.
Other activities allegedly involving the three hacker groups are the theft of cryptocurrency exchanges. Again, the proceeds of these crimes went into financing the rogue’s weapons programs:
“North Korea’s cyber operations are also targeting virtual asset providers and crypto-currency exchanges to potentially help cover up revenue streams and cyber-thefts that could also fund North Korea’s WMD and missile programs.”
The three groups are also blamed for a considerable number of crypto-exchange thefts, especially in Asia. Between the first quarter of 2017 and the third quarter of 2018, these hacker groups stole $571 million of cryptocurrencies from five Asian Bitcoin exchanges.
The OFAC’s allegation that proceeds from the hacking group’s cyber operations have been used to fund weapons now casts a shady shadow on US President Donald Trump’s earlier statement that the hermit kingdom is no longer a threat. Last year Trump tweeted that the US was no longer exposed to a “nuclear threat from North Korea”.
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