Japan Becomes The Biggest Victim Of Crypto Theft By North Korean Hackers

JAKARTA Recently, North Korea (North Korea) is famous for its crypto hacking forces that have claimed many victims. They are known to have hacked or hacked cryptocurrencies targeting Japan from 2012 to 2017.

According to Elliptic blockchain intelligence data, North Korean hackers managed to steal US$ 721 million worth of digital assets or around Rp. 10.7 trillion in the 2012-2017 period. This amount is equivalent to global losses related to the North Korean hacker group.

Meanwhile, according to a Nikkei Asia report regarding this hack, the value of stolen crypto assets is only 8.8 times larger than North Korea's total exports in 2021. Although cyber hackers are suspected of having attacked a number of countries, the report assesses Japan and Vietnam are the two countries that are the main targets of the North Korean hacker group.

Hackers are thought to be focusing their attacks on the two countries because crypto exchange operators and platforms there use an easy-to-be security system. One of the targeted crypto exchange platforms, Zaif, has lost $51.4 million (7 billion yen) equivalent to IDR766 billion in 2018. Since the incident, the Zaif crypto exchange has been forced to close.

As is known, North Korea has been sanctioned by the United States and the United Nations, it is difficult to get the foreign currency North needs. To overcome this, hacker groups linked to Pyongyang, including the Lazarus Group, were tasked with stealing crypto assets. The well-known crypto hacker group used two types of cyberattacks, namely hacking and ransomware.

However, according to this report, cybercriminals linked to North Korea use more hacking methods because this method allows Pyongyang to "collect large crypto assets" from one crypto exchange target. This illegal act also allows North Korea to gain foreign currencies.

Apparently not only Japan, North Korean hackers also managed to steal 497 million US dollars (Rp7.4 trillion) from the United States. Not stopping there, Hong Kong also suffered the same fate, the North Korean hacker group managed to steal US$281 million (equivalent to Rp4.1 trillion) from the country.