North Korean Hackers Robbed Bitcoin Worth IDR 4 Trillion

Illustration of North Korean hacker hacking Bitcoin (Cointelegraph)

JAKARTA - North Korea has hacked the Bitcoin cryptocurrency, amounting to USD 316.4 million, if converted into Rupiah, equivalent to IDR 4.4 trillion. The hack was carried out from 2019 to November 2020.

That much Bitcoin was compromised from a financial institution which also doubles as a cryptocurrency exchange. That kind of money is claimed to be used by North Korea to develop their nuclear and ballistic missile programs, as reported by CNN, February 10.

According to reports from classified UN documents, North Korea is also believed to be still developing nuclear, maintaining their facilities and building their ballistic missile infrastructure to date.

The classified report is a report from a panel of UN experts tasked with overseeing enforcement of sanctions against North Korea for their development of nuclear and ballistic missiles. Not only from the UN expert team, but the panel reports also came from UN members, the media, defectors from North Korea, and intelligence agencies.

One of the media that received reports about the classified document was CNN, through one of its diplomatic sources at the United Nations.

North Korea has been developing nuclear weapons for years. Various parties including the United Nations have urged the country as the capital city of Pyeongyang to stop the action.

In 2017, North Korea successfully tested their own intercontinental ballistic missile. This action led the United Nations to impose sanctions on North Korea. These sanctions are in the form of economic sanctions from the country.

After being sanctioned, it seems that North Korea is having a hard time getting funding. Hacking of digital currencies was carried out to get income from the hacking of Bitcoin.

North Korea Deploys Hacker Troops

Cited from SCMP, North Korea reportedly has deployed a troop of trained hackers totaling thousands of personnel. This deployment was carried out to strike digital attacks on companies, South Korean researchers, institutions, and so on.

It was recently believed that these troops were robbing large amounts of crypto money. They are also believed to attack virtual money exchanges. This was done because the value of the Bitcoin digital currency was increasing sharply.

Not only that, but this hacking troop has also been accused of breaking into the famous film studio Sony Pictures Entertainment. The hacking was carried out as a form of revenge because the film production house had once released a film that was considered mocking their leader, Kim Jong Un, as reported by The Interview.

They were also accused of breaking into the Central Bank of Bangladesh amounting to USD 81 million (around IDR 1.1 trillion), and the East Taiwan International Bank was also successfully stolen totaling USD 60 million (around IDR 838 billion).