The perchance North Korea has for cryptocurrency has so far been described as inappropriate or excessive by some, as a recent report shows that there are several criminal activities that go on in the country for this reason. Some have even gone as far as connecting the country’s government with several crypto exchange hacks this year.
Crypto Exchange Hacks
A recent report made it known that the top five crypto exchange hacks this year, were carried out by a North Korea-based hacker consortium called Lazarus. The infamous $500 million CoinCheck breach is among the five reported crypto exchange hacks.
The hackers according to a cybersecurity firm called Group-IB, used malware, social engineering and phishing to gain access to relevant access points and databases. More report suggests that Lazarus’ new targets are retail cryptocurrency consumers, which includes the common man that would not normally be a target for these kind of hackers.
Kwon Seok-Chul who is the CEO of Cuvepia, a cybersecurity organization which is based in South Korea has come out to say that since April 2018, about 30 different attracts on regular crypto wallet holders have been recorded by his firm. He also said that the 30 cases he mentioned were just a little compared to the actual amount which could be up to 100. He went on to describe this form of attack as “Robin hood-inspired.”
Simon Choi who belongs to a self-acclaimed cyber warfare research group called IssueMakersLabs, has also recently spoken about this menace, saying that bitcoin hackers have changed their strategy in carrying out their acts.
A major reason for this is because these crypto exchanges have started tightening up their defences. A good example can be seen with Binance who moved a large portion of the Ethereum-based tokens in its possession just recently, to a more secure wallet.
Simon Choi in his statement, also suggested that South Korean CEOs are also the likely targets of these hackers, as these CEOs own crypto coins like Bitcoins in billions of won.
Report from a recent publication suggests that Lazarus has given up on crypto exchange hacks and decided to focus on their new strategy.