SNEAK PEEK
- Troy Stangarone says the collapse of the FTX.com exchange will halt the activities of North Korea’s hacking teams that target cryptocurrency theft.
- As per Stangarone, exchanges are ramping up security and oversights, and that too with increased scrutiny of exchanges by regulating bodies.
- This came following the North Korean regime’s zero-COVID policy, which has led to a reduction in revenue from exports.
In a recent revelation, it has surfaced that the Senior Director at the Korea Economic Institute of America (KEI), Troy Stangarone, has revealed that the collapse of the FTX exchange will hinder the activities of the North Korean hacking teams aimed at cryptocurrency theft.
In accordance with the statement released by Stangarone, the collapse of the FTX exchange will act as a hindrance to the ability of North Korean teams to steal cryptocurrency. This is because the exchanges are elevating their security standards and are increasing scrutiny of exchanges by regulating entities.
What contributes more to this fact is that the fall in the prices of cryptocurrencies has made the hacks less profitable. In addition to this, Stangarone revealed that the zero-COVID policy of the North Korean regime has led to a reduction in revenue from exports, stimulating more crypto heists.
As rumored earlier this year, North Korea has been providing funds to its nuclear and ballistic missile programs with the derived profits from cyberattacks on crypto exchanges. Moreover, it was reported by Chainalysis in September that North Korea had stolen around $1 billion worth of cryptocurrencies just from DeFi protocols in the first eight months of 2022.
As announced by the National Police Agency of Japan last month, the hacker group backed by North Korea, Lazarus, had been sending phishing emails to crypto exchange employees based in Japan in order to infect their systems with malware.
Adding further to the bucket of North Korea, we have accusations form the FBI, as they announced that North Korea conducted a $620 million crypto heist on the Ronin Bridge of Axie Infinity.
