Altcoin News: Hacking Banks and Crypto Exchanges Brought North Korea $2 Billion

August 6, 2019, by Marko Vidrih on ALTCOIN MAGAZINE

North Korea earned about $2 billion from hacking cryptocurrency exchanges and banks in order to finance its nuclear program, Reuters writes with reference to a confidential UN report.

According to information from the report, Pyongyang used “widespread and increasingly sophisticated” cyberattacks to steal funds, which then went on to create weapons of mass destruction.

“Democratic People’s Republic of Korea cyber actors, many operating under the direction of the Reconnaissance General Bureau, raise money for its WMD (weapons of mass destruction) programmes, with total proceeds to date estimated at up to two billion US dollars,” the report said. According to UN experts, attacks on cryptocurrency exchanges allowed North Korea “to generate income in ways that are harder to trace and subject to less government oversight and regulation than the traditional banking sector.”

Last year, there was information that North Korea could engage in cryptocurrency mining and even develop its own Bitcoin exchange.

Author: Marko Vidrih