A panel monitoring U.N. sanctions says North
Korean cyber experts have illegally raised money
for the country’s weapons of mass destruction
programs “with total proceeds to date estimated
at up to $2 billion.”
The experts said in a new report to the Security
Council that North Korea is using cyberspace
“to launch increasingly sophisticated attacks
to steal funds from financial institutions and
cryptocurrency exchanges to generate income”
in violation of sanctions.
Cryptocurrency exchanges deal in virtual money
like bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple which use a
technology called blockchain. There have been
some high-profile cryptocurrency exchange
heists including a hack reported last month
by Tokyo-based Remixpoint, which runs the
BITPoint exchange, causing the loss of 3.5 billion
yen, or $32 million, worth of virtual money.