Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/UNITED NATIONS: A confidential United Nations (UN) report said that North Korea stole more cryptocurrency assets in 2022 and targeted the network of foreign aerospace and defense companies.
According to Reuters, “North Korea used increasingly sophisticated cyber techniques both to gain access to the digital network involved in cyber finance and to steal information of potential value, including to its arms programs,” independent sanctions monitors reported to a UN Security Council committee.
The monitor has previously accused North Korea of using cyber-attack to help fund its nuclear and missile programs.
UN’s stance on the cybersecurity
” DPRK actors stole a higher value of cryptocurrency asset in 2022 than in the previous year,” the monitor wrote in their report – submitted to the fifteen-member council’s North Korea sanction committee on Friday, citing information from United Nations member states and cybersecurity firms.
North Korea has denied all allegations of hacking and other cyberattacks.
The sanction monitors said that South Korea estimated that North Korean-linked hacker stole virtual assets worth 630 million dollars in 2022, while a cybersecurity firm assessed that North Korean cybercrime yielded cyber currencies worth more than $1 billion.
“The variation in the USD value of cryptocurrency in a recent month is likely to have affected the estimate, but both show that 2022 was the record-breaking year for DPRK North Korea virtual asset theft,” the United Nations report said.
