North Korean hackers have managed to steal billions by infiltrating cryptocurrency exchanges and assuming fake identities to secure remote tech jobs with international companies, according to a global report examining North Korea’s cyber capabilities.
The report’s authors revealed that Pyongyang officials orchestrated these covert operations to fund research and development of nuclear weapons.
Australian researchers contributed to this 138-page review, which was released by the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team. This group, established last year to track North Korea’s adherence to UN sanctions, includes the US and ten allied nations.
The coalition comprises Australia, the US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Korea, and the United Kingdom.
This monitoring body emerged after Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would have tasked a panel of experts with overseeing North Korean activities.
The team’s initial report, published in May, focused on North Korea’s military assistance to Russia.
Earlier this year, hackers linked to North Korea carried out one of the largest crypto heists ever, stealing $US1.5 billion ($2.3 billion) worth of ethereum from Bybit.
The FBI later linked the theft to a group of hackers working for the North Korean intelligence service.
Federal authorities also have alleged that thousands of IT workers employed by US companies were actually North Koreans using assumed identities to land remote work.
The workers gained access to internal systems and funnelled their salaries back to North Korea’s government.
In some cases, the workers held several remote jobs at the same time.
A message left with North Korea’s mission to the UN was not immediately returned on Wednesday.
