The United Nations (UN) initiated a probe against North
Korea over allegation of illegally raising money for weapons of mass
destruction programs through cyberattacks launched against 17 countries.
The Asian country was accused of raising $2 billion from its
increasingly sophisticated cyber activities against financial institutions and
cryptocurrency exchanges. South Korea was the most hit as they suffered 10
attacks. The nation’s Bithumb cryptocurrency exchange was reportedly hacked at
least four times.
India suffered three cyberattacks, while Bangladesh and
Chile each had two attacks. The remaining thirteen nations which suffered one
attack each are Costa Rica, Gambia, Guatemala, Kuwait, Liberia, Malaysia,
Malta, Nigeria, Poland, Slovenia, South Africa, Tunisia and Vietnam.
Asides mining cryptocurrency via illicit cryptojacking
malware to fund a “professional branch of the military", North Korea
Government's hackers were also accused of taking over the ATM network for an
entire nation in a particular attack and making over 10,000 payments.
North Korea’s hacking experts also reportedly carried out
attacks through the SWIFT bank messaging network, “with bank employee computers
and infrastructure accessed to send fraudulent messages and destroy evidence.”
The allegation is being investigated as attempted violations of U.N. sanctions.
