Hackers From North Korea Use Altcoins To Convert $1.5B In Stolen Funds

Hackers from North Korea are using altcoins that are untraceable in order to convert stolen cryptocurrencies into cash equaling more than $1.5 billion in stolen funds as we are reading more in the upcoming altcoin news.

The hackers from North Korea are suspected to be using untraceable alternative cryptocurrencies to convert funds into cash. The news reports from NK News, which is an unpublished United Nations Panel of Experts report shows that the North-Korean hackers have stolen more than $1.5 billion in crypto and that they were converting a portion of the amount into cash. The hackers transacted funds using privacy altcoins as they are harder to trace and track and moved the stolen assets to regulated crypto exchanges that have minimal customer identification requirements.

The United Nations experts stated that the North Korean hackers tried to make the funds untraceable using “mixers” which is an advanced service that mixes crypto funds of different users to preserve privacy and to make tracking efforts much harder. The senior analysts at cybersecurity company Mandiant Threat Intelligence Fred Plan explained:

 “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.”

North Korea is suspected of conducting a lot of virtual heists and stealing funds that are worth billions of dollars. We reported one popular group known as the Lazarus group which stole more than $571 million between 2017 and 2018. As per the reports, North Korean hacks accounted for more than 65% of stolen crypto. Another UN report cited by Reuters estimated that the Hackers from North Korea stole more than $2 billion in cash and crypto through cyberattacks in order to fund their nuclear program.

In 2019, another U.N. report cited by Reuters also estimated that North Korea had stolen almost $2 billion in cash and cryptocurrencies through cyberattacks to fund its nuclear program. North Korea is well-known as the most unpredictable and the most worrying nations throughout the world. Throughout the years it was seen that North Korea is constantly working on developing nuclear weapons and is working and funding a few other projects that pose a national security threat to other nations.