“North Korea’s sophistication and efficacy in laundering the proceeds from these incidents is continuing to improve,” said Andrew Fierman, head of national security intelligence at Chainalysis. “The industry needs to continue ensuring that they have better security controls.”
Chainalysis is a private analytics firm that aims to create transparency about the blockchain. It helps government agencies seize and disrupt illicit activity, and helps private crypto companies with compliance. The company has released the report annually since 2019.
North Korea broke its own record of yearly money stolen in crypto, and it did so in creative ways. The country had its own citizens work as IT employees at crypto companies, where they used AI to pretend they were working from another country, like the U.S. These employees then gained access to privileged information and caused large-scale breaches. North Koreans also used a method called social engineering, where they sent emails and text messages to people with crypto. If those individuals clicked on the wrong link, the hacker could access their private wallets.
“If you’re online, talking about your success in crypto investments, I’d recommend not doing that,” Fierman said. “It points to you potentially having a hardware wallet and creates a physical target for you as an individual.”
