Toll of North Korean crypto heists reaches record heights

TechCrunch reports that more than $2 billion worth of cryptocurrency has been stolen by North Korean state-backed threat actors by the end of the third quarter, which has already exceeded the previous annual record of $1.35 billion recorded in 2022. North Korea is said to have amassed at least $6 billion from cryptocurrency heists since 2017, a figure which could still be underestimated, a report from Elliptic revealed. Additional findings showed that social engineering intrusions were the most prevalent attack vector in cryptocurrency intrusions this year. "This marks a shift from earlier attacks where in many cases technical flaws in crypto infrastructure were exploited to steal funds. This shift highlights that the weak point in cryptocurrency security is increasingly human, rather than technical," said Elliptic researchers. North Korean hackers were reported by the United Nations Security Council to have exfiltrated $3 billion worth of cryptocurrency between 2017 and 2023.