Hackers have been all over the place in the recent times. These masterminds have hacked prominent Twitter handles for Bitcoin scam and now some cyber-criminals in North Korea are making the most of their stolen funds.
North Korea based cyber criminals have used altcoins or cryptocurrencies, which are untracable in nature, to convert their stolen funds into cash. The hackers have stolen approximately $1.5 billion in cryptocurrencies and they were converting a portion of that amount into cash.
It is a pretty deliberate effort from the hackers to use the altcoins, which are privacy-based, as it will not be easy to trace it. Experts in the U.N said that the North Korean hackers try to make their funds untraceable using “mixers”, which is, an advanced service that mixes cryptocurrency funds of various users to preserve privacy and make tracking efforts more difficult.
“North Korea-sponsored actors have a critical advantage that most cybercriminals do not have: They are backed by the resources of a nation-state that is understood to already have significant capability to move money in other illegal transactions, such as weapons sales and human trafficking,” senior analyst at cybersecurity firm Mandiant Threat Intelligence, Fred Plan, said.
Meanwhile, North Korea is one of the prime suspect in stealing funds and virtual heist.
An infamous North Korean cybercriminal groups Lazarus reportedly stole over $571 million between 2017 and 2018.
