North Korean hacking exercise ceases after regulators implement KYC

by Jeremy

In keeping with a brand new press report printed by South Korea’s Nationwide Intelligence Service (NIS), North Korean hackers have stolen greater than 800 billion Korean gained ($620 million) price of cryptocurrencies from decentralized finance, or DeFi, platforms this yr. The company additionally revealed it blocked a day by day common of 1.18 million assaults perpetrated by nationwide and worldwide hacking organizations in November. 

Nonetheless, a NIS spokesperson revealed by way of native information outlet Kyunghyang Shinmun that the entire $620 million stolen by North Korean hackers by DeFi exploits occurred abroad, including: 

“In Korea, digital asset transactions have been switched to real-name transactions and safety has been strengthened, so there is no such thing as a injury.”

Many funds have been misplaced in DeFi exploits this yr. Supply: Token Terminal

In 2021, South Korea applied new know-your-customer (KYC) cryptocurrency buying and selling guidelines requiring shoppers to create a real-name account with the identical financial institution as their cryptocurrency change to deposit or withdraw funds. Each the financial institution and the change are then required to confirm the shopper’s identification. As well as, exchanges should receive a license from the Monetary Companies Fee earlier than commencing operations.

North Korean hacker syndicates, equivalent to Lazarus Group, have been linked to a lot of high-profile DeFi breaches this yr, such because the $100 million Concord assault. Specialists mentioned that such assaults are a method of producing overseas foreign money reserves within the face of strict business sanctions imposed by the worldwide group. The NIS additionally warned that North Korean cyber assaults would intensify subsequent yr:

“It’s mandatory to investigate assaults as carefully as defenses. As a result of one hacker group has all of the assault info and doesn’t neglect it. It’s mandatory to collect info associated to malicious code scattered by varied attackers to seek out significant insights.”