Who knows?
But what you're suggesting is probably more time-consuming and difficult. It's probably a lot easier to steal funds from those unpopular centralized exchanges, fake decentralized platforms, poorly-secured custodial wallets, and whatnot than to create hype.
It's not easy to market a shitcoin, to make it sell. They'll probably just stick to their hacking business. It's where they're experts at. It's where they gained almost $400 million in just a year. Perhaps they only need to expand their operation for a much bigger loot.
Topic: North Korean Hackers Stole Nearly $400 Million in Crypto Last Year (Read 202 times)
January 18, 2022, 11:44:41 PM
January 18, 2022, 04:38:58 PM
It appears ethereum and erc-20 tokens are Kim Jong's favorite crypto:
Bitcoin accounting for only 20% of the funds stolen by north korean hackers sounds like progress is being made.
This is like a normal thing to me, because most of these scams are more likely to come from the ERC 20 tokens and not from Bitcoin. Moreover if you check these days,there are more alternative cryptocurrencies and more that are being released in the market almost in everyday that passes by, over 10,000 of them currently in the market. Quote
For the first time since Chainalysis began tracking North Korean cryptocurrency thefts, Bitcoin no longer represents anywhere near the majority of the country's take, accounting for only around 20 percent of the stolen funds. Fully 58 percent of the groups' cryptocurrency gains came instead in the form of stolen ether, the Ethereum network's currency unit. Another 11 percent, around $40 million, came from stolen ERC-20 tokens, a form of crypto asset used to create smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain.
Bitcoin accounting for only 20% of the funds stolen by north korean hackers sounds like progress is being made.
So, it shouldn’t be a surprise that majority of these scams that has taken place are coming from the altcoin market. Bitcoin is about less than 40% dominance in the market, and altcoin stakes the rest of the market dominance, so you would more likely see scam taking place in the altcoin market than you would see in Bitcoin.
January 16, 2022, 01:26:13 PM
It appears ethereum and erc-20 tokens are Kim Jong's favorite crypto:
It may be easier to hack ERC 20 wallets and hence the Kim Jong's army is taking advantage of that loophole and doing their business of looting others as there is no other global trade they are conducting with other countries 
. North Korea stole $400 million in cryptocurrency last year, what about the over all hacks that happened in the market. I am sure it will be over a billion dollars and some of the hacks were questionable including the Polygon hack. 
January 16, 2022, 09:12:00 AM
Makes you wonder with all the scams going on in the markets with fake tokens and projects and DeFi and everything else why bother 'stealing'
All you need are a bunch of state sponsored web people to put up a bunch of sites and then to promote them on twitter / facebook / wherever to get some hype and then let the money roll in. No hacking needed. You will have people just lining up to give you money. Would save a lot of time and effort.
I mean has anyone looked at the Token / AltCoin Announcements boards here lately? It really is a cesspool. And people are still lining up to give away their money.
-Dave
All you need are a bunch of state sponsored web people to put up a bunch of sites and then to promote them on twitter / facebook / wherever to get some hype and then let the money roll in. No hacking needed. You will have people just lining up to give you money. Would save a lot of time and effort.
I mean has anyone looked at the Token / AltCoin Announcements boards here lately? It really is a cesspool. And people are still lining up to give away their money.
-Dave
January 16, 2022, 08:56:01 AM
That was a clear lapse from those crypto exchanges and I feel pity for them but on the other side, that was easy money for them (North Korean hackers) and I believe that it was an order by the North Korean leader itself, and if those crypto funds were already liquidated it can contribute to the development of their weapons of mass destruction which is not a good thing. Just my opinion!
January 16, 2022, 08:24:49 AM
This will help Bitcoin or cryptocurrency-related projects to strengthen more their security because people's money is involved here and hackers are anywhere.
That's just how the way it is, whenever internet money in on the line, hackers are involved. no matter what industries we are talking about including Paypal and online banks, hackers will not exclude them, they will still every money they could if they see any flaw in their security system. That's why the most trusted exchanges nowadays are those who are not prone to hackers or have some strict rules and remedy for it. Just like what we have seen with Binance when they were got hack back then, nowadays they are more trusted than before because people know how strong they are.
January 16, 2022, 04:22:56 AM
Wow 400 million is a lot of money and since north Korea is a dictatorship we know that Kim has to be directly involved. How is there no international pressure towards North Korea? I hate all types of scammers, but if a government is behind it it's even worse. It's a bit relieving that they don't only target bitcoins and seem to focus more on alt coins, still any theft is wrong. Can't we find a way for North Korea to be blocked from engaging in cryptos? Like will they exchange that 400 million into Chinese yuan or their own currency? If we can track the wallets the hacker used maybe we can get these funds banned from being sold on any exchange.
January 16, 2022, 03:08:42 AM
This is another one of the best examples of why there will be more projects will come to cryptocurrency and establish existing one.
This will help Bitcoin or cryptocurrency-related projects to strengthen more their security because people's money is involved here and hackers are anywhere.
This is also another treat to most centralized company that related to cryptocurrency such as exchanges.
This will help Bitcoin or cryptocurrency-related projects to strengthen more their security because people's money is involved here and hackers are anywhere.
This is also another treat to most centralized company that related to cryptocurrency such as exchanges.
January 16, 2022, 12:11:05 AM
It's not a lot of money for a country that they target but these cyber attacks funded and endorsed by North Korea is more damaging to infrastructures and documents rather than the money, we don't know what they're going to attack next and we know for a fact that US cyber infrastructure isn't good as WikiLeaks was able to get in it, what more can we expect if it's a rogue state.
January 16, 2022, 12:08:15 AM
Come to think of it...we in the cryptocurrency industry is indirectly funding the illicit activities of the North Korean regime since they are able to get the best hackers sowing chaos in the marketplace by victimizing as many platforms and people as possible. And I think this is not actually exclusive to NoKor because there are also other rogue countries who are doing the same thing since they know that the stake here can be so high, the prize can be so appetizing to anyone which is akin to doing multi-billion operation with so less of a capital needed. And based on what I am seeing now...there seems to be no solid solution to this problem since these hacker's can be 2 steps ahead of security providers...maybe we should be hiring these hackers instead.
January 15, 2022, 07:38:24 PM
Quote
A one-man operation means that every mistake is not going to get corrected till something really wrong happens like above, once the guy thinks everything is ok he is not going to check it once more, obviously, with multiple poeple, the problems might get spotted faster, just how the exchange won't get kaput if the one guy falls ill.
And there is the quadriga example, where one guy held all the keys, and we all know how that ended.
This is so scary idea to think about knowing how many people are using exchanges. I thought this can only happen with gambling platforms which i know few of them running promotion here in bitcointalk are controlled by one or two guys maximum. For an exchange, those details should be revealed at start and also providing a way to check it at anytime. And there is the quadriga example, where one guy held all the keys, and we all know how that ended.
January 14, 2022, 09:13:41 AM
I think we are seeing the tip of the Iceberg, because these hackers are so sophisticated. The ChainAnalysis forensics can surely not follow the coins when it goes into Mixer services, so we know some of the stolen coins are not linked to them. 
Mr Kim Jong-un (Rocket Man) are funding all those inter-continental ballistic missile experiments with the stolen Crypto currencies, even under very strict sanctions. I read somewhere that a fleet of 400 missiles will cost around $95.8 billion ..... and the estimates are that the hackers stole about $1.5 billion in cryptocurrency in the last 5 years. (So they can surely fund a couple of experimental rockets with that....seeing that the experimental rockets does not have nuclear warheads)
https://apnews.com/article/politics-e4b80421be5dba5c5f5a162e55ac0d94
Mr Kim Jong-un (Rocket Man) are funding all those inter-continental ballistic missile experiments with the stolen Crypto currencies, even under very strict sanctions. I read somewhere that a fleet of 400 missiles will cost around $95.8 billion ..... and the estimates are that the hackers stole about $1.5 billion in cryptocurrency in the last 5 years. (So they can surely fund a couple of experimental rockets with that....seeing that the experimental rockets does not have nuclear warheads)
https://apnews.com/article/politics-e4b80421be5dba5c5f5a162e55ac0d94
January 14, 2022, 01:19:16 AM
"Run by one or Two persons." !!? Really !?
Yup, really!
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/--5316404
lol... this guys above didnt know what they talk...unnamend never steals ur money... just one fact.. its one person behind them all. he has a normal life, perhaps he is working like we all do.all i know , he is working on all problems!
~
~
A one-man operation means that every mistake is not going to get corrected till something really wrong happens like above, once the guy thinks everything is ok he is not going to check it once more, obviously, with multiple poeple, the problems might get spotted faster, just how the exchange won't get kaput if the one guy falls ill.
And there is the quadriga example, where one guy held all the keys, and we all know how that ended.
January 14, 2022, 01:10:19 AM
Articles from other crypto news sites actually thought these hackers are going to consider the cryptocurrency they got from hacking exchanges are going to be a long-term investment as said in this article https://www.banklesstimes.com/2021/12/28/north-korea-has-hacked-1-7-billion-worth-of-cryptocurrency-from-exchanges-considers-it-a-long-term-investment/
But they actually cash out BTC with ease. That's not good. Companies use to hire hackers to keep up with securities as seen in movies, it doesn't seem to be the case now because the incentives they get are more than what a company could provide in hiring them.
But they actually cash out BTC with ease. That's not good. Companies use to hire hackers to keep up with securities as seen in movies, it doesn't seem to be the case now because the incentives they get are more than what a company could provide in hiring them.
January 14, 2022, 12:54:23 AM
I dont think this altcoin and erc20 token are bad, they are accelerate the growth and adoptioin. Its all good.
January 13, 2022, 11:33:53 PM
It appears ethereum and erc-20 tokens are Kim Jong's favorite crypto:
Bitcoin accounting for only 20% of the funds stolen by north korean hackers sounds like progress is being made.
Bitcoin accounting for only 20% of the funds stolen by north korean hackers sounds like progress is being made.
I don't think these state-sponsored and most probably China-trained hackers are being choosy in terms of whether their loot is mostly in ETH or ERC-20 tokens or BTC. They're simply looking for soft targets and it so happened that most of what they have are ETH and ERC-20 tokens. The hackers don't probably mind this. They're cashing them out, anyway.
So, I don't think this body of data from Chainalysis is suggesting to stick with Bitcoin and avoid ETH and ERC-20 altcoins. What it's definitely saying is to avoid centralized exchanges and other platforms where there's only a single or a few points of attack and whose funds are under their direct control.
January 13, 2022, 10:09:51 PM
Rather than being of concern for bitcoin popularity these statistics should trigger some serious warnings call to everyone dealing with tokens and leaving them on some exchange run by one or two persons.
"Run by one or Two persons." !!? Really !?If this can be verified and confirmed, i think it can help more people not to lose their savings. However, this is not the main reason about how we should't stake funds in form of altcoins, as it's also risky if staking them in personal wallets or in trusted exchanges .
January 13, 2022, 08:30:23 PM
It's not a matter of Trends imo, it's all about how a thief can cash out his earnings with the minimum of problems.
Exactly.
Tokes are easy to swap, do that a few times and every tracing becomes impossible, plus there are a lot of victims, there are hundreds of exploits in all those rushed protocols, and on all the websites that have pop-up up lately only to cater for tokens. Most people who are trading with BTC to that on more reliable and established platforms that have tighter security, and in most cases those do secure their main stash of BTC in cold wallets.
Besides, when you deal with BTC you can have one wallet and that's it, when it comes to 1000 shitcoins and exchanges, be ready to have one hundred apps for them, the chances of downloading malware grow exponentially.
Rather than being of concern for bitcoin popularity these statistics should trigger some serious warnings call to everyone dealing with tokens and leaving them on some exchange run by one or two persons.
January 13, 2022, 07:59:04 PM
The trend nowadays is not in bitcoin alone, but on ETH and ERC20 tokens. People have been swarming these projects like ants finding a food source for the first time. Most of these people are just urged to buy in to crypto, and don't really have sufficient knowledge to carry themselves in this kind of world yet, which makes them easy targets to hackers. Also, the projects these same people support are scams too, which is not really surprising considering how no one really bats an eye whenever a rug pull happens on these projects.
Hackers will always find a way where to get their money.
So if they are seeing that other networks like ETH have valuable amounts and they see their vulnerability.
They will try and try. After all, they are after for the money that they can siphon on these networks.
And they will only cash out if they know it will not be traced back to them. This is why it would take years before they move it.
But are we really sure that they are North Koreans? It means, NK are having sophisticated tools to hack crypto platforms.
January 13, 2022, 07:58:24 PM
Would still continue or making themselves blind until they would lost lots and this is the time they would make out some step in regards with it but for now they are making themselves to look blind
with the reality.
Hacking incidents are really that possible to happen yet this had been a problem since this place or market looks like a honey pot since this do involves millions of dollars
and once they do succeed on doing that then it would really be easy money for them.
No matter what trend we are in but still these things do exist no matter what.
It's not a matter of Trends imo, it's all about how a thief can cash out his earnings with the minimum of problems.with the reality.
Hacking incidents are really that possible to happen yet this had been a problem since this place or market looks like a honey pot since this do involves millions of dollars
and once they do succeed on doing that then it would really be easy money for them.
No matter what trend we are in but still these things do exist no matter what.
I am really surprised to see that only 20% of stolen funds were in bitcoin knowing that mixers for bitcoin are a great advantage for hackers to erase all traces. DEFI can also act in the same field but it should be more limited compared to bitcoin and few other coins.
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