North Korean hackers are reportedly using untraceable altcoins to convert stolen cryptocurrencies into cash

According to the NK News report, the North Korean hackers stole about $ 1.5 billion in crypto, and they are converting some of that money into cash.

North Korean hackers continue to take advantage of the lax from the security of exchanges

The report from NK News said:

“The hackers deliberately transact using privacy-focused altcoins as they are hard to trace and track, moving the stolen assets to loosely regulated cryptocurrency exchanges that have minimal customer identification requirements.”

North Korean hackers are trying to remove traces of hacked money through mixers – an advanced service that mixes cryptocurrency funds of various users to preserve privacy and make tracking efforts more difficult.

Senior Analyst at the cybersecurity firm Mandiant Threat Intelligence, Fred Plan, said:

“North Korea-sponsored actors have a critical advantage that most cybercriminals do not have: They are backed by the resources of a nation-state that is understood to have already significant capability to move money in other illegal transactions, such as weapons sales and human trafficking. ”

North Korea is suspected of having conducted numerous virtual robberies and steals worth billions of dollars. One of North Korea’s most infamous cyber-crime groups, Lazarus reportedly took more than $ 571 million between 2017 and 2018. In 2018, North Korean-sponsored hacks accounted for more than 65% of the stolen cryptocurrency.

In 2019, another UN report cited by Reuters also estimated that North Korea stole nearly $ 2 billion in cash and crypto through cyberattacks to fund its nuclear program of this country.

U.S. experts have previously alleged that North Korea is “increasingly” turning to crypto as a tactic to circumvent sanctions, claiming that the country’s government is hiring people to “launder” cryptocurrencies via multiple wallets and exchanges, as well as so-called mixing services, with the aim of obtaining sanction-free U.S. dollars.