North Korea Arrests Hackers Accused of Laundering Stolen Bank Funds Using Cryptocurrency

North Korean authorities have arrested former military hackers accused of stealing state funds from two banks and laundering the proceeds using cryptocurrency.

According to a report by Daily NK citing an anonymous source in Pyongyang, the group allegedly hacked the internal systems of the Central Bank of the DPRK and the Foreign Trade Bank, redirecting foreign currency and state trade funds to overseas cryptocurrency wallets.

Independent verification of this information is not possible.

According to Daily NK, Chinese brokers then converted the assets into US dollars and yuan. Contacts in the border cities of Sinuiju and Hyesan allegedly exchanged the cryptocurrency for cash in real time, with the group splitting the transfers into small amounts to avoid detection and using encrypted messengers, unregistered phones, and Chinese wireless equipment.

The report states that on July 12, North Korea's State Intelligence Agency arrested the suspects at a safe house in Pyongyang after employees discovered discrepancies in foreign currency payment confirmations and suspicious activity from overseas IP addresses.

The money laundering method is similar to those used by North Korean hacking groups to cash out stolen cryptocurrency.

A report by a multinational sanctions monitoring organization states that Chinese over-the-counter traders and financial institutions play a central role in converting cryptocurrency stolen by Pyongyang-linked operators into fiat currency.

According to Chainalysis, North Korean hackers stole a record $2 billion in cryptocurrency last year. TRM Labs estimates that as of April 2020, they accounted for 76% of losses from cryptocurrency hacks and fraud.