North Korea on the Other Side of a Crypto Hack

According to Daily NK, a South Korean outlet specializing in North Korea, a hacking ring has been uncovered in Pyongyang that broke into the internal systems of North Korea's Central Bank and the state-run Foreign Trade Bank, siphoning off part of the country's foreign currency reserves. The stolen funds were then converted into crypto in small batches.

I'll admit I was surprised: does North Korea really have ways to convert foreign currency held in bank accounts into crypto? Still, Daily NK is a fairly credible outlet that is frequently cited by prominent North Korea researchers.

Well, this story finally makes one thing clear: crypto serves no state - not North Korea, not the US, and not anyone else. North Korea is often accused of being behind crypto hacks and profiting from them. And now we see that the DPRK itself can also fall victim to hackers using crypto.

That said, Daily NK's report has not been independently confirmed. But then again, claims that North Korea was behind hacks of crypto services and cryptocurrency thefts rarely come with publicly available evidence either. It is simply convenient to blame everything on a closed-off state, since there is almost no way to verify the claims. Now we are seeing the other side of that secrecy.

If there is one thing we can say for certain, it is this: crypto is useful to anyone who wants to move money out of banks.