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 analysis firm TRM Labs

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

According to the report, North Korea-linked hacking organizations stole a total of 643 million dollars (approximately 1 trillion won) in virtual assets in the first half of this year.

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 a 285 million dollar hacking incident that occurred in April at the decentralized finance (DeFi) platform 'Drift' and another 292 million dollar hacking incident at the DeFi platform 'KelpDAO' to North Korea-linked organizations.

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

The report explained that while the amount of virtual assets stolen by North Korea-linked hacker organizations in the first half of this year decreased compared to approximately 1.7 billion dollars (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 through phishing, cryptocurrency fraud, or disguised employment of overseas IT personnel," and "North Korea's actual cryptocurrency-related profits are likely to be much larger than this."

Meanwhile, South Korea, the United States, and Japan held the '5th ROK-US-Japan Working Group Meeting on Countering North Korean Cyber Threats' in Washington D.C. from May 25-26.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson told VOA regarding this meeting, "North Korea has increasingly turned to cybercrime to evade 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."