North Korean hackers under the leadership of Kim Jung Un have decided to steal Bitcoins in order to evade sanctions put forward by politicians from Washington to Seoul. This was reported by security company FireEye Inc, which also added in its report that Kim’s apparent interest on Crypto currency comes amid rising prices and popularity of the digital currency.
So far, FireEye has confirmed attacks on at least three South Korean Bitcoin exchanges which lost around 5800 bitcoins on an overall note. The security researchers from FireEye confirm that the money could have been invested in projects causing espionage, network disruptions and political instability in nations which are treated as foes by Kim.
Luke McNamara, a researcher at FireEye and author of the latest report said that Kim might also use the stolen digital currency to hire hackers from other nations. The hackers are using Spear Phishing techniques and dispersed malware to obtain virtual cash. As Bitcoin payments lack state controls and are conducted on a secretive note, they are being used as fund raising tools for projects taken up on dark web and money laundering tools
FireEye also disclosed in its security report that Kim Jung Un has a cyber army of more than 6K officers who are well trained in hacking any network in the world.
And according to 2016 report from the International Cyber Policy Center at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, the North Korean Government is also hiring ethical hackers from all around the world to resource their projects on a full scale. This includes technology geeks hailing from nations such as Britain, United States, Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
As the whole world is looking to impose sanctions on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Kim Jung Un led government is aiming to obtain hard cash in exchange for stolen virtual coins to fund its nuclear ambitions and other objectives.
