North Korea hacked 1 trillion won in virtual assets in the first half of this year... 66% of global damages

"North Korea hacked 1 trillion won in virtual assets in the first half of this year... 66% of global damages"

VOA reports, citing a report from blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs

About two-thirds of the global virtual asset hacking damages in the first half of this year are analyzed to be the work of North Korean-linked hacking organizations, Voice of America (VOA) reported on the 3rd, citing a report from blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs.

According to the report, the total amount of virtual assets stolen by North Korean-linked hacking organizations in the first half of this year reached 643 million dollars (approximately 1 trillion won).

This accounts for 66.2% of the total global virtual asset hacking damages (972 million dollars, approximately 1.5 trillion won) during the same period.

The report attributed the $285 million hacking incident that occurred on the decentralized finance (DeFi) platform 'Drift' in April, and another $292 million hacking incident on the DeFi platform 'KelpDAO', to North Korean-linked organizations.

The hacking damages from these two incidents alone total $577 million (approximately 900 billion won).

The report explained that while the amount of virtual assets stolen by North Korean-linked hacker organizations in the first half of this year decreased compared to approximately $1.7 billion (approximately 2.6 trillion won) in the same period last year, "this is not because North Korea's attack capabilities have weakened, but because relatively fewer super-large hacking incidents like last year occurred this year."

It added, "These statistics only reflect North Korean hacking incidents and do not include illegal profits obtained through phishing, cryptocurrency fraud, or disguised employment of overseas IT personnel," and "North Korea's actual cryptocurrency-related profits are likely to be much higher than this."

Meanwhile, South Korea, the United States, and Japan held the '5th ROK-US-Japan Working Group Meeting of Diplomatic Authorities to Counter North Korean Cyber Threats' in Washington D.C. on June 25-26.

Regarding this meeting, a U.S. State Department spokesperson told VOA, "North Korea has increasingly turned to cybercrime to circumvent international sanctions and fund its illicit weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs," emphasizing that "virtual currency theft and money laundering have become a significant part of this strategy."