Seoul: North Korean Hackers Stole $1.2B in Virtual Assets (apnews.com) 19
North Korean hackers have stolen an estimated 1.5 trillion won ($1.2 billion) in cryptocurrency and other virtual assets in the past five years, more than half of it this year alone, South Korea's spy agency said Thursday. From a report: Experts and officials say North Korea has turned to crypto hacking and other illicit cyber activities as a source of badly needed foreign currency to support its fragile economy and fund its nuclear program following harsh U.N. sanctions and the COVID-19 pandemic. South Korea's main spy agency, the National Intelligence Service, said North Korea's capacity to steal digital assets is considered among the best in the world because of the country's focus on cybercrimes since U.N. economic sanctions were toughened in 2017 in response to its nuclear and missile tests.
The U.N. sanctions imposed in 2016-17 ban key North Korean exports such as coal, textiles and seafood and also led member states to repatriate North Korean overseas workers. Its economy suffered further setbacks after it imposed some of the world's most draconian restrictions against the pandemic. The NIS said state-sponsored North Korean hackers are estimated to have stolen 1.5 trillion won ($1.2 billion) in virtual assets around the world since 2017, including about 800 billion won ($626 million) this year alone. It said more than 100 billion won ($78 million) of the total came from South Korea.
The U.N. sanctions imposed in 2016-17 ban key North Korean exports such as coal, textiles and seafood and also led member states to repatriate North Korean overseas workers. Its economy suffered further setbacks after it imposed some of the world's most draconian restrictions against the pandemic. The NIS said state-sponsored North Korean hackers are estimated to have stolen 1.5 trillion won ($1.2 billion) in virtual assets around the world since 2017, including about 800 billion won ($626 million) this year alone. It said more than 100 billion won ($78 million) of the total came from South Korea.
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NK can maybe last 1 week in an all out war and if they do nuke some one they will be nuked out.
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NK is in place to do an lot of death and damage to seoul and they have lot's digged in artillery that can rain down death.
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Not only Seoul, but yes. They have three lines of defense against the one single enemy that they actually have, the US.
The world's largest artillery, dug into mountains, pointed at Seoul, a city of 11M people, right at the border. SK being a US satrapy.
Missiles pointed at Tokyo. Who knows where, and how many? Japan being a US satrapy.
And most recently, nukes that can reach the US west coast. Who knows where, and how many? But they are slowly gaining range and creeping to cover all of the US.
And the fact is,
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Not only are crypto-boyz losing their asses (and other people's too), they're funding nuclear terrorism.
The crypto boyz are hard at work making sure their funny money becomes so worthless it soon won't fund anything at all anymore.
So ironically, you can view Sam "stupidest name in finance" Bankman-Fried as doing his bit to help topple DPKR regime by ruining them. Imagine that: I managed to find something good to say about SBF!
As for "other people's too", cry me a river: anyone investing in cryptocurrencies in 2022 knows perfectly well it's a scam about to collapse, and nobody in that space in an innocent vict
Re: It's sad. (Score:2)
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The sooner we invade DPRK the better if you ask me.
I really hope that they will be able to bring down dictatorship from within. Which countries ended dictatorship:
ChatGPT [openai.com]:
Many countries have transitioned from dictatorship to democracy, or have abolished dictatorship and established a democratic system of government. Some examples of countries that have ended dictatorship in recent history include:
Another reason not to invest in crypto (Score:3)
See what "Live and let spam" gets us! (Score:2)
Yes, they are bad actors, but they couldn't do it without outside support. They don't call it the hermit kingdom in honor of the crabs. This specific example of criminality might be victimless, depending on how you feel about greedy suckers getting taken advantage of, but the larger problem is the infrastructure that ALL of us are providing (or at least using) that makes the crimes possible.
Let me tune up that old solution harp... FOLLOW THE MONEY, STUPID! Yeah, I know that's what makes crypto so attractive
At least they didn't steal anything worth money (Score:5, Funny)
Let them enjoy their rapidly-depreciating imaginary assets.
Wow... (Score:2)
Wow...a trillion to won, one, Korean currency.
I'm surprised North Korea does not create a crypto currency, use a front to push it, and then manipulate it...or maybe they already are doing so?
JoshK.