North Korean hackers continued hammering crypto investment firms and exchanges in 2021.
Hackers from North Korea stole nearly $400 million worth of cryptocurrency in 2021 through at least seven attacks and most of it was Ether or ETH rather than Bitcoin, according to blockchain analysis firm, Cainalysis.
2021 was a record year for North Korea's military hackers, the most notorious of which is Lazarus, the group behind the destructive wiper attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2014, WannaCry ransomware in 2017, multiple banks via the SWIFT banking system, and numerous cryptocurrency exchanges.
Also known as APT 38, the group has focused in on cryptocurrency theft as a prime vehicle for raising revenue for the country and evading US and UN economic sanctions. A UN Panel of experts in 2018
concluded that its cryptocurrency hacks contribute to North Korea's ballistic missile programs.
