Analyst predicts an increase in the number of cyberattacks by hackers from North Korea

Former CIA analyst Suh Kim shared her opinion on the hacker attacks by North Korean criminals: cryptocurrency theft has become a «way of making money» for North Koreans.

It is North Korea that has become the leader among the countries with the largest number of cryptocurrency crimes: more than 7,000 hackers from this country have caused material damage to the entire cryptocurrency community. «Given the challenges faced by North Korea’s harsh political regime — the decline in countries willing to cooperate with North Korea, food shortages, and other problems — indicate that hackers will continue to carry out cyberattacks, as they are essentially unchecked by anyone in the country or outside of it,» Su Kim explained.

According to the former CIA analyst, the number of hacker attacks will continue to grow, and the ways in which attackers steal funds will only «improve.» Currently, there are more than 15 open criminal proceedings against the attackers, whose damage from hacker attacks is estimated at almost $ 2 billion.

As a reminder, the United States recently announced that it would tighten sanctions against North Korea. According to Brian E. Nelson, a representative of the U.S. Treasury Department, cryptocurrency attacks facilitated by North Korea help finance its weapons of mass destruction. Thus, North Korean hackers from the Lazarus Group are suspected of involvement in the attack on the Harmony blockchain’s Horizon Bridge, which resulted in the theft of $ 100 million.