Increased Number of Bitcoin Attacks from North Korea

The United Nations Security Council has approved a new set of sanctions against North Korea that are mostly economy related. However, North Korea seems to have found a new way to avoid those restrictions. In the last couple of months, there has been a significant increase in Bitcoin attacks coming from North Korea and many experts have said that this is part of their effort to avoid sanctions and to secure amounts of Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies.

Security researcher FireEye Inc. has reported that the number of hackers attacks from North Korea have been on the rise recently and almost all of those attacks have been focused on cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea. The same research has also announced that the hackers from North Korea have recently attacked a Bitcoin news website in English language and that they have managed to collect ransom money from that web site that was paid in Bitcoins.

Not even North Korean leader was able to ignore the rising popularity and the value of Bitcoin in the global cryptocurrency market. As the rest of the countries in the world are strengthening their sanctions against North Korea, the North Korean regime is looking for a way to maintain the already weak economy. Considering that kind of situation, many experts also believe that North Korean interest in cryptocurrencies will become even bigger in the upcoming period.

According to FireEye.Inc, South Korean cryptocurrency exchange has suffered minimum three hackers attacks from North Korea. One of those attacks happened in May and it proved to be successful as hackers managed to break through the exchange defense. At that time, it was reported that Yapizon, a cryptocurrency exchange located in Seoul lost around 3,800 Bitcoins which when converted to the standard currency is more than $15 million. However, there are no clear proofs that North Korean hackers were involved in that theft but according to authorities, there are some indications that might be true.

North Korea’s officials have denied all accusations about them participating in those hacker attacks, even though there are proofs that hackers from North Korea have been involved in those attacks especially in the one on Sony Pictures Entertainment that happened in 2014. FireEye Inc. also said that there is no clear evidence that hackers from North Korea have been engaged in any cryptocurrency exchange attacks outside of South Korea. However, South Korean cryptocurrencies are a very popular target for hackers from the North Korea.

Not that long ago, more than 300,000 computers all over the world have been under attack from hackers and FireEye Inc. has stated that they have found clear evidence that links Pyongyang with those attacks. Besides that, they also said that their research and investigations have also encountered signs that North Korean hackers are also involved in Bitcoin mining business.

The biggest amount of hackers attack in South Korea were committed by a group of hackers known under the name TEMP.Hermit. Over the years, they conducted some of the biggest attacks in South Korea and there is hardly any system in the country that has not been affected by their attacks.

Written by Vedran Ostojic

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