UN: North Korean hackers attack bitcoin exchanges to circumvent sanctions

According to the report of the UN Security Council, North Korea organized attacks on large cryptobirds in order to acquire foreign currency and thereby mitigate the effects of international economic sanctions. This is reported by the Nikkei Asian Review .

Sanctions to counter the DPRK nuclear missile programs had a negative impact on coal exports and, accordingly, reduced foreign exchange earnings into the country.

According to experts, the cryptocurrencies obtained by hackers provide the North Korean ruling regime with "additional opportunities to circumvent sanctions." Also, the report’s authors are confident that using digital assets it is possible to launder funds and that government regulation does not apply to such coins.

According to researchers, for the period from January 2017 to September 2018, hackers successfully attacked Asian exchanges at least five times. The loss of cryptocurrency platforms is estimated at $ 571 million.

Experts recommended that UN member states more effectively “exchange information on cyber attacks from North Korea with other governments and financial institutions” in order to identify and prevent such actions.

Group-IB, a company specializing in cyber security, reported earlier that in 2017 and the first 9 months of 2018, hackers broke into 14 cryptocurrency exchanges and caused damage of $ 882 million.

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