Who was affected by the North Korean cyber attacks?

The United Nations are currently investigating 35 North Korean cyber attacks in 17 countries. Last week, information surfaced revealing that the country had spent over $2 billion stolen funds on financing national weapons programmes. 

South Korea became the top target for North Korean hackers, with a total of 10 attacks. India experienced significant impact with three attacks. However, the hackers did not limit their activity to Asia: the UN is investigating incidents in Africa, Latin America, Europe and even in the Middle East. 

Some of the most daring hacks were made in the SWIFT inter bank transfer system. Employees of financial organizations were often targeted, and the harmful software was often installed directly in the ATMs, resulting in approximately 10 thousand fraudulent transactions in 20 countries. 

Cryptocurrency exchanges became another favourite for the hackers. South Korean exchange Bithumb was attacked a total of four times. In 2018, another unnamed exchange was hacked. The stolen funds were transferred through 5 thousand independent transactions to other countries for further schemes. 

Cryptojacking is also a popular activity among hackers. It involves the secret installation of mining programs on the victims’ computers. After the UN investigated one of these programs, it turned out that the mined coins were sent directly to Pyongyang.