According to the results of a study by blockchain intelligence firm Elliptic, North Korea coordinated cyber attacks targeting Japanese digital assets and stole an estimated USD 721 million worth of digital assets between 2012 and 2017. This amount is equivalent to 30% of the total global losses that are linked to North Korean hacker groups.

According to the Nikkei Asia report, which conducted the study, the value of digital assets stolen from Japan alone is equivalent to 8.8 times exported to North Korea for 2021. It is believed that hackers have targeted many countries, but Nikkei reports indicate that Japan and Vietnam have been particularly targeted due to their rapid growth in the cryptocurrency markets.

It is believed that hackers chose the two countries because the operators there used weak security systems. Among the operators or cryptocurrency trading platforms targeted, the Zaif platform was closed after it lost 51.4 million dollars (7 billion yen) in 2018.

The primary objectives are cryptocurrency trading platforms

North Korea, which is under sanctions from the United States and the United Nations, is having difficulty securing the foreign currency it needs. To compensate for this, hacker groups associated with Pyongyang were entrusted with the task of stealing digital assets for the benefit of North Korea. To achieve this, hacker groups used cyber attacks of two types: hacking and ransomware.

However, according to the report, criminal groups associated with North Korea mainly used hacking methods because these methods enable Pyongyang to “bring in a huge booty of digital assets” from simply targeting a single cryptocurrency trading platform. The hack also enabled North Korea, which is suffering from the effects of sanctions, to collect foreign currency.

In addition to Japan, the same groups of hackers are believed to have targeted the United States and other Asian countries such as Hong Kong. According to the report, hackers are also believed to have stolen 497 million dollars from the United States and 281 million dollars from Hong Kong.

So, the study indicates that North Korea successfully targeted digital assets in Japan and made a significant amount of money from these fraudulent operations on digital currencies.