North Korea was responsible for more than $600 million in cryptocurrency thefts last year
US national security officials have expressed concern over North Korea's use of stolen cryptocurrencies to develop nuclear weapons.
North Korea-affiliated hackers were involved in a third of all cryptocurrency exploits and thefts last year, making off with some $600 million in funds, according to a report from TRM Labs.
The sum brings the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK) total crypto project haul to nearly $3 billion over the past six years, the blockchain analytics firm said on Friday.
Still, the figure is about 30% lower than in 2022, TRM head of legal and government affairs Ari Redbord said. That year, DPRK-affiliated actors made off with around $850 million, "a large chunk" of which came from the Ronin Bridge exploit, Redbord told CoinDesk in an interview. In 2023, most of the stolen funds were stolen in recent months; TRM attributed around $200 million in stolen funds to North Korea in August 2023.
“They are clearly attacking the crypto ecosystem at unprecedented speed and scale and continue to take advantage of some sort of weak cyber controls,” he said.
Many of the attacks continue to use so-called social engineering, which allows perpetrators to acquire private keys for projects, he said.
Overall, the amount stolen in hacks in 2023 was about half that of the previous year: $1.7 billion compared to $4 billion.
Redbord attributed the decline to several factors.
There were fewer major attacks like the 2022 Ronin theft and other factors include successful law enforcement actions, better cybersecurity controls and, to some extent, price volatility over the past year.