North Korean hacking activity 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 received ($620 million) price of cryptocurrencies from decentralized finance, or DeFi, platforms this yr. The company additionally revealed it blocked a day by day common of 1.18 million assaults perpetrated by nationwide and worldwide hacking organizations in November. 

Nonetheless, a NIS spokesperson revealed by way of native information outlet Kyunghyang Shinmun that all the $620 million stolen by North Korean hackers by way of DeFi exploits occurred abroad, including: 

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“In Korea, digital asset transactions have been switched to real-name transactions and safety has been strengthened, so there isn’t a harm.”

In 2021, South Korea carried out new Know Your Buyer cryptocurrency buying and selling guidelines requiring shoppers 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 shopper’s identification. As well as, exchanges should acquire a license from the Monetary Companies Fee earlier than commencing operations.

North Korean hacker syndicates, equivalent to Lazarus Group, have been linked to various high-profile DeFi breaches this yr, together with the $100 million Concord assault. Consultants mentioned that such assaults are a way of producing overseas foreign money reserves within the face of strict industrial sanctions imposed by the worldwide neighborhood. The NIS additionally warned that North Korean cyberattacks would intensify subsequent yr:

“It’s needed 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 needed to collect data associated to malicious code scattered by numerous attackers to seek out significant insights.”