State-backed North Korean hackers topped $1.6 billion in cryptocurrency theft last year, Chainalysis said — an unprecedented level of cybercrime for Pyongyang. That’s a whopping increase from $660.5 million in 2023, which reflects the regime’s increasing reliance on cybercrime for money to fund their government and weapons programs.
But the report shows that North Korea was behind 61 percent of the $2.2 billion stolen from global crypto platforms this year. Its cyber operatives carried out 47 separate attacks in 2023, double the number they were responsible for in 2023.
The latest set of attacks targeted cryptocurrency platforms and decentralized finance (DeFi) systems to steal funds that analysts say are used to fund ballistic missiles and weapons development.In recent years, North Korean hackers have employed increasingly sophisticated tactics, including advanced malware and social engineering schemes.
Crypto Crime North Korea’s Growing Dominance
An interesting way is to infiltrate cryptocurrency firms pretending to be remote IT workers. Fourteen North Koreans have been indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice for securing such jobs using phony identities, and became wealthy pocketing $88 million in data theft and extortion.
The scale has also grown. More high value attacks over $100 million by North Korean linked groups took place in 2024 than any prior year alongside an increase in smaller scale heists under $50 million.
According to Symantec, North Korea’s hacking activity hit a peak in the first half of the year but has since levelled off, mirroring closer relations between Pyongyang and Moscow. This is thought to have been influenced by a meeting between Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin, analysts believe, shifting North Korea’s cyber focus in support of Russia’s military interests in the Ukraine conflict.
The mid-year slowdown aside, the scale of theft demonstrates North Korea’s dominance in the crypto crime space. About a third of all of the regime’s missile program funding, U.S. officials say, may be from illicit cyber operations.
The Chainalysis report noted that the DPRK may have switched up its cybercriminal strategies thanks to the ‘higher cooperation’ with Russia. However, 2024 not only solidified North Korea as a global leader in crypto theft, it was responsible for two thirds of the worlds hacking incidents.
