North Korean hackers were involved in one-third of all cryptocurrency exploits and thefts last year, stealing approximately $600 million, according to a report by TRM Labs. The blockchain analytics firm said on Friday that the figure brings the total funding the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has received from cryptocurrency projects over the past six years to nearly $3 billion.
Still, the number is about 30% lower than in 2022, said Ari Redbord, TRM's director of legal and government affairs. In an interview with CoinDesk, Redbold said that North Korea-linked actors stole approximately $850 million that year, with a "significant portion" of that coming from the RoninBridge vulnerability. In 2023, most of the stolen funds were stolen in the final months; TRM believes that approximately $200 million in stolen funds in August 2023 was attributed to North Korea.
"They are clearly attacking the crypto ecosystem at an unprecedented speed and scale and continue to exploit weak network controls. Many attacks continue to use so-called social engineering to allow criminals to obtain private keys to projects," he said.
Overall, the amount stolen by hackers in 2023 was about half of the previous year - $1.7 billion, compared with $4 billion the year before.
Redbold attributes the decline to several factors. There have been fewer major hacks like the Ronin theft in 2022, and other factors include successful law enforcement actions, better cybersecurity controls, and, to some extent, virtual currency price volatility over the past year.
North Korea's attack is notable because its proceeds are likely to be used to develop weapons of mass destruction, raising concerns about national security.
"North Korean hackers are different because they're not doing it for greed or money, and they don't have the typical hacker mentality to show off their skills; they're going to use those funds for weapons proliferation and other types of destabilizing activities, and this is a global threat. That's why from a national security perspective, people are so concerned about this issue," he said.
National security officials from the United States, South Korea and Japan raised these concerns directly at a recent trilateral meeting on regulating North Korea's development of weapons of mass destruction.