North Korea is using cyberattacks to target Japanese crypto assets. Hacker groups affiliated with North Korea have stolen $721 million from Japan since 2017, according to a study by a UK-based compliance expert.
North Korea Targets Japan in Cryptocurrency Theft
According to the study, Japan's losses of $721 million accounted for 30% of the global total since 2017.
It is believed to be targeting other countries' crypto assets to acquire the foreign currency that Pyongyang uses for its missile program. This could threaten Asia's security.
Performing the analysis on behalf of Nikkei, Elliptic has technology that monitors and identifies money transfers on the blockchain where the cryptocurrency is traded.
North Korea stole between $600 million and $1 billion in cryptocurrencies in 2022, more than double the previous year's total, according to a report released on April 5 by a panel of UN Security Council experts. Elliptic estimated this figure at $640 million for 2022.
North Korea uses two main types of cyber attacks. Hacking and ransomware. Elliptic's analysis revealed mostly hacking stealing directly from crypto exchanges.
Since it is unclear whether a particular ransomware attack will be successful, North Korea is thought to focus its efforts on direct attacks on exchanges, as a successful attack could bring in large amounts of crypto assets.
According to Elliptic, North Korea has stolen a total of $2.3 billion in cryptocurrencies from businesses between 2017 and the end of 2022. Japan accounted for the largest portion of this, followed by Vietnam ($540 million), the United States ($497 million) and Hong Kong ($281 million).
*Not investment advice.
