North Korea has stolen MILLIONS in cryptocurrencies, spy agency reveals - DAILY NEWS

North Korea has stolen MILLIONS in cryptocurrencies,
spy agency reveals NORTH Korean hackers have stolen over 5million
now worth 62million  in cryptocurrencies in cyber attacks, it has been revealed. It comes after experts revealed Kim Jong-un
could be making a fortune with Bitcoin's record-breaking surges using North Korean hackers to circumvent
the sanctions placed on the despotic regime as the dictatorship continues its nuclear
weapons programme. The 5.17Million ($6.99Million) includes
operations that saw thefts from Yapizon, now called Yobit, and Coinis in April and September
both are exchanges of cryptocurrencies. The Chosun Ilbo, a South Korean newspaper,
stated that the 5million in cryptocurrencies are now worth a whopping 62million ($82.7Million).

The paper refers to the Souths National
Intelligence Service (NIS) that revealed despot leader Kim Jong-un also requested 4.1Million
($5.5Million) from Bithumb in return for personal information the country had stole from the
exchange. North Korea has repeatedly denied it has been
involved in international attacks  but it has made no secret of its interest in bitcoin. Last month, the elite Pyongyang University
touted a lecture from a bitcoin expert as part of its cryptocurrency course. Federico Tenga, founder of bitcoin startup,
Chainside, was approached by the university, which is believed to be the breeding ground
for North Koreas hackers.

The university said: Many excellent technical
questions were asked about the inner working of bitcoin, its risks, and the measures taken
to ensure security. In June the rogue nation leaked information
from 36,000 accounts from Bithumb - the exchange is renowned for being the busiest in the world. The hermit kingdom attempted another desperate
cyber attack on an estimated 10 cryptocurrency exchanges in October but was denied by the
South's Korea Internet Security Agency (KISA). North Korean hackers attempted to use emails
containing malware in the attempted act - these contained internet addresses in the hermit
kingdom.

Following the failed attack by Kim Jong-un,
the NIS discovered that the malware was the same as used in the hacking of Sony Pictures
in 2014 and the central bank of Bangladesh in 2016. A hacker group named the Guardians of Peace
(GOP) demanded that Sony Pictures pull the release of its film, The Interview, and released
confidential data from employees at the studio and copies of then-unreleased films in November
2014. The GOP then used a type of malware named
Shaman wiper to erase computer infrastructure at Sony. The Interview was a film starring James Franco
and Seth Rogen that saw the duo plot to assassinate Kim Jong-un.

North Korea has long persisted with its use
of cyber attacks - the country appears to be harnessing online tactics with increased
regularity in a desperate scramble for finance, a move that could be related to the increased
economic squeeze being put on the country by nations around the globe. In an exclusive interview with Express.Co.Uk,
CNN military analyst Cedric Leighton warned that North Korea has the potential to be very
damaging to a lot of countries from its tactics employed in the cyber realm. He declared: In Great Britain, the NHS
attack was a clear indication that a country like North Korea could target the critical
infrastructure of a country on the other side of the world and it affected peoples daily
lives. I think we need to be very careful with
North Korean offensive cyber capabilities and this points to a very interesting development
in warfare.

I think they also understand and have made
very good use of, the whole cyber domain and whats interesting about this is it doesnt
really take that much in terms of material and resources and frankly personnel as long
as you have the right kind and they have a degree of training that makes them effective
as hackers. They can be very, very damaging to a lot
of countries that have a much more highly developed intranet connectivity than North
Korea itself does. The big irony is that North Koreas general
population has very limited access to the internet or internet like intranets that are
developed in North Korea itself. But that has not prevented Pyongyang from
developing a robust intelligence gathering effort as well as offensive capability under
the reconnaissance of what they call their Reconnaissance General Bureau which is their
main intelligence service and that effort has proven to be very potent..